Congress vs. physics, part 5,234 this year

Johnny Roosh writes about a "brilliant" move of Congress a year or so back to ban the incandescent light bulb. As a result, people are learning (the hard way, as I did) that putting a compact flourescent bulb in a enclosed area is just asking for trouble, and they're wondering how long it's going to take for the problem to be resolved.

Answer: quite a while, as the reason that these bulbs burn out so quickly is a simple process called electromigration. When you put current through an aluminium wire at a certain temperature, the atoms move, eventually breaking the wire. The same thing pretty much ends the life of your incandescent bulb.

So no matter what you do, when you run a piece of silicon power circuitry in a hot place, it will die pretty quickly. That goes for compact flourescents and diode bulbs..

...but not incandescents. Why not?

Simple; the resistance of a filament goes up with heat, which limits the temperature an incandescent bulb can attain. Hence, it lasts pretty well in a closed fixture.

Don't count on Congress figuring this out, of course. They've got better things to do, like applaud as talented men are forced out of their positions by those who can't even make a decent appointment to the Treasury Department.