Is the light beam of the Luxor Pyramid hotter than the surface of the sun?

Question

As said on Criss Angel it was by a scientist. Can i get some a credited people no children or basic answers off the back of your head, i need facts. Thanks

Answer 1

The light beam is not hot, but the source might be.  The filament in a light bulb is white hot after all.

Answer 2

There are lots of things on Earth that are hotter than the surface of the Sun, which is only at a temperature of around 5000 K.  

Answer 3

The plasma gas inside the bulb that emits light can be hotter than the surface of the sun, but no, the light beam isn't hotter than the surface of the sun.  Nor is the bulb itself as hot as that.  Not even the electrodes that convey electrical energy to the bulb are that hot.

The Luxor Pyramid light is made up of 39 individual 7000W Xenon Arc Lamps.  There is Xenon gas in a bulb in which two tungsten electrodes are enclosed.  A high voltage creates an arc between the electrodes.  The Xenon gas is ionized and emits light.  The electrons leave the cathod and continue to pass through the plasma and strike the larger anode which is heated by the impact.

http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?...

The temperature at the top of the sun's photosphere is 4400K (Kelvin)

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/fac...

Temperatures at the surface of the anode (which is struck by electrons) can reach upwards of around 2000K.  The metal of which it is made from is Tungsten (the metal with the highest melting point of all metals).  Tungsten starts melting somewhere near 3000K.  The cathode can reach this high temperature.  The cathode won't be hotter than that though because it will erode as it melts and will be in melting phase absorbing energy at that temperature.

http://www.asltg2.com/XenonTutorial.htm

The bulb can be as hot as 750 degrees C.  That's enough to melt glass, but not quartz.

Now, as far as the temperature of the plasma?   That's a different story.  It is hot.  The gas that is ionized to become the plasma can be hotter than the surface temperature of the Sun.  One source I looked at had made an estimate of around 10,000K.  See the temperature profile of the bulb on the last page of this paper:

http://www.wendelstorf.de/doc/1998/jw406...

Answer 4

Yes it is.