When an electron leaves a light bulb, is it diminished in some way?

Question

The light bulb emits photons, so they had to come from somewhere right?

Answer 1

it loses energy, due to collisions, which gets converted to heat and light

when a charged particle accelerates/decelerates it creates a distortion in the electric field which propagates outwards as a wave at the speed of light, this is where light comes from.  personally i think photons are more of a thinking aid than a reality, but who knows?? if you ever meet someone who has actually seen light then maybe they can tell you!!

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Answer 2

Yes, after passing through the bulb and coming out the other side, the electron has less energy, and the energy that all the electrons lose is converted into light and heat.

Answer 3

First, photons are not a 'way of thinking'. The wave theory was not able to explain things like the photoelectric effect, and since its proposal in the early 1900's physicists have consistently confirmed that light is 'made of' photons. Or more accurately, light is photons.

Photons are emitted by electrons as the electrons change energy states (lose energy) in their atomic/molecular structures.

When the tungsten filament gets hot, the electrons of the atoms and molecules of the filament move to higher energy states, then they emit photons (light) - they radiate energy - which 'cools' them down - they drop to a lower energy state - and are again available to be 'heated' again.

So the electrons themselves are very involved in the production of light, but only as an intermediary. They absorb energy and emit photons. Some electrons do boil off of a hot filament, but there are not responsible for the light we see.