Question

The emission spectrum of an incandescent light bulb is continuous rather than discrete. This is true even through the filament is made of tungsten, an element. Why do you think this is

Answer 1

Answer:

This is the property of metals like W (Tungsten) to produce a continuous spectrum.

Explanation:

The molecules of a gas are highly differentiated and single atoms absorb photons instead of bulk like metals and only give line spectrum for example line spectrum given by hydrogen etc. On the other hand, metals like Tungsten gets very hot and emission of every possible wavelength of light is observed. This emission is continuous because the wavelengths of light in the spectrum has no breakages.