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Electricity and Magnetism: What Are They & Why Are They Important?

Important Facts About Thomas Edison & the Invention of the Light Bulb

How Has the Incandescent Lightbulb Changed Over the Years?

Since the dawn of human history, moonlight, candles and lanterns provided the only illumination. During the first half of the 19th century, gas lighting developed and flourished. Unfortunately, gas produced a flickering light that burned down theaters and homes worldwide. Electric arc lighting, invented in 1809, was much safer but far too bright for use in a small area. A smaller light was needed, and in 1880 Thomas Edison patented the first commercially viable incandescent light bulb.

Thomas Edison

Born in Milan, Ohio February 11, 1847, Thomas Alva Edison credited his mother for the success of his ever-inquisitive mind, once saying, "My mother was the making of me. She understood me; she let me follow my bent." Edison worked as a newspaper carrier and telegrapher, but invention was his calling. From his childhood hobby of chemical experimentation to becoming a legendary inventor, he constantly tinkered with new and better ways of doing things. He patented his first invention, an electric voting machine, in 1868. From there he filed patents for the phonograph, motion picture camera, advances in telephone technology and over a thousand other inventions.

Light Bulb Pioneers

Thomas Edison did not invent the incandescent light bulb. Twenty three different light bulbs were developed before Edison's. The principle was to pass an electric current through a filament powerful enough to cause it to glow without combusting. Among the pre-Edison pioneers of electric lighting, Sir Humphrey Davy created the first electric arc lamp in 1809. Warren De la Rue designed the first incandescent light in 1820. La Rue's design depended on a platinum filament, far too expensive for any practical application. Over half a century of experimentation focused primarily on finding an inexpensive filament that could produce electric light for any useful length of time.

Edison's Experiments

Thomas Edison and his lab associates, called "Muckers," conducted thousands of experiments to develop the electric light bulb. To make it functional, each step required the invention of a new component, from vacuumed and sealed glass bulbs to switches, special types of wire and meters. Like previous efforts, the greatest challenge was coming up with a material that could serve as a long-lasting filament. After testing thousands of materials, including over 6,000 types of plant growths, they found the best substance was carbonized cotton thread.

The Final Product

Edison was able to produce over 13 continuous hours of light with the cotton thread filament, and filed his first light bulb patent on January 27, 1880. Later, he and his researchers found that the ideal filament substance was carbonized bamboo, which produced over 1,200 hours of continuous light. The first large-scale test of Edison's lights occurred September 4, 1882 when 25 buildings in New York City's financial district were illuminated.

"The electric light has caused me the greatest amount of study and has required the most elaborate experiments," Edison later wrote. "I was never myself discouraged, or inclined to be hopeless of success. I cannot say the same for all my associates."

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The Franklin Institute: Edison's Lightbulb
National Archives: Thomas Edison's Patent Application for the Light Bulb
Edison Muckers: Thomas Edison Lightbulb
The Idea Finder: Light Bulb

About the Author

Charles Hooper began writing as a career in 2009. Since then he has published a nonpartisan political advocacy book and hundreds of articles. An honors graduate from the University of North Carolina at Asheville where he concentrated in sociology and political science, he later earned a Masters degree in social work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Speech on Light

Light, you see it every day. It’s the reason you can view the world around you. It’s a fascinating natural phenomenon, a blend of science and magic.

From the sun’s rays to the glow of a bulb, light is everywhere. It’s crucial, yet so simple, like the colors in a rainbow after a rainy day.

1-minute Speech on Light

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Light is a magic trick that nature plays every day. It brings color to our world, shows us the way in the dark, and makes life possible.

Imagine a world without light. It’s like a book without words, a song without sound. It’s the first thing we see when we wake up and the last thing before we close our eyes. The golden glow of a sunrise, the sparkles of a starry night, the dancing colors of a rainbow – they all bring joy and wonder to our lives.

Light is essential for life too. Plants need sunlight to grow, to make food – a process called photosynthesis. It’s like a plant’s kitchen. The food they make not only keeps them alive but also helps us and other animals to live.

Besides, light does more than just helping us see. It can solve mysteries. Ever heard of a rainbow? It’s light playing detective, splitting into different colors. Each color is like a different clue to how light works.

But light is a fast runner. It’s the quickest thing in the universe. Nothing can keep up with it. Not us, not even the fastest spaceship. It can travel around the world seven times in one second! Can you imagine how fast that is?

Lastly, light is a great teacher. It teaches us about our world and beyond. Astronomers use light to study stars and galaxies millions of miles away. It’s like a message from the universe, telling us stories about space.

In conclusion, light is more than just brightness. It’s a lifeline, a detective, a runner, and a teacher. So, let’s appreciate the magic of light, the magic that brightens our world and our lives every day.

Also check:

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2-minute Speech on Light

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, today I want to talk to you about something amazing, something we use every day but often take for granted. That something is ‘Light’. Let’s embark on this magical journey together.

In the first place, let’s think about the sun. The sun is our main source of light. Without it, our world would be dark and cold. If you’ve ever stayed up late for a campfire, you know how vital light is. It helps us see, keeps us warm, and brings life to everything around us. Plants need light to grow, and we humans need it to live. In fact, without light, we wouldn’t have food or even oxygen to breathe!

Next, we have to consider artificial light, like the light bulb in your room or the flashlight on your phone. These human-made lights have changed our lives in countless ways. Before we had them, people had to rely on candles or oil lamps. Once the sun set, there wasn’t much you could do. But now, with the flick of a switch, we can turn night into day. We can read books, do homework, and even play games long after the sun has gone down.

Now, let’s imagine a world without colors. Pretty boring, right? But thanks to light, we live in a world bursting with colors. You see, light is made up of different colors. When light hits an object, some colors are absorbed while others bounce back. The colors that bounce back are the ones we see. So, the red apple you eat, the blue sky you gaze at, and the green grass you play on, it’s all because of light!

But that’s not all. Light is not just about seeing or colors; it’s also about feeling. Think about how you feel on a bright, sunny day compared to a dull, cloudy one. Light can lift our spirits and make us feel happy. It can also create a cozy, warm feeling when it’s dimmed. So, light affects our feelings too!

Finally, did you know that light is also the fastest thing in the universe? It travels at an incredible speed of about 300,000 kilometers per second. To put that into perspective, light from the moon takes just about one second to reach us. This helps us understand why we see stars at night even though they are so far away!

So, the next time you flip a switch or step out into the sunshine, remember the magic of light. It’s not just about illuminating our path; it’s about bringing life, color, warmth, and happiness into our world. And that, my friends, is the true wonder of light. Thank you.

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Incandescent Bulbs Light the Way

Long before Thomas Edison patented -- first in 1879 and then a year later in 1880 -- and began commercializing his incandescent light bulb, British inventors were demonstrating that electric light was possible with the arc lamp. In 1835, the first constant electric light was demonstrated, and for the next 40 years, scientists around the world worked on the incandescent lamp, tinkering with the filament (the part of the bulb that produces light when heated by an electrical current) and the bulb’s atmosphere (whether air is vacuumed out of the bulb or it is filled with an inert gas to prevent the filament from oxidizing and burning out). These early bulbs had extremely short lifespans, were too expensive to produce or used too much energy.

When Edison and his researchers at Menlo Park came onto the lighting scene, they focused on improving the filament -- first testing carbon, then platinum, before finally returning to a carbon filament. By October 1879, Edison’s team had produced a light bulb with a carbonized filament of uncoated cotton thread that could last for 14.5 hours. They continued to experiment with the filament until settling on one made from bamboo that gave Edison’s lamps a lifetime of up to 1,200 hours -- this filament became the standard for the Edison bulb for the next 10 years. Edison also made other improvements to the light bulb, including creating a better vacuum pump to fully remove the air from the bulb and developing the Edison screw (what is now the standard socket fittings for light bulbs).

(Historical footnote: One can’t talk about the history of the light bulb without mentioning William Sawyer and Albon Man, who received a U.S. patent for the incandescent lamp, and Joseph Swan, who patented his light bulb in England. There was debate on whether Edison’s light bulb patents infringed on these other inventors’ patents. Eventually Edison’s U.S. lighting company merged with the Thomson-Houston Electric Company -- the company making incandescent bulbs under the Sawyer-Man patent -- to form General Electric, and Edison’s English lighting company merged with Joseph Swan’s company to form Ediswan in England.)

What makes Edison’s contribution to electric lighting so extraordinary is that he didn’t stop with improving the bulb -- he developed a whole suite of inventions that made the use of light bulbs practical. Edison modeled his lighting technology on the existing gas lighting system. In 1882 with the Holborn Viaduct in London, he demonstrated that electricity could be distributed from a centrally located generator through a series of wires and tubes (also called conduits). Simultaneously, he focused on improving the generation of electricity, developing the first commercial power utility called the Pearl Street Station in lower Manhattan. And to track how much electricity each customer was using, Edison developed the first electric meter.

While Edison was working on the whole lighting system, other inventors were continuing to make small advances, improving the filament manufacturing process and the efficiency of the bulb. The next big change in the incandescent bulb came with the invention of the tungsten filament by European inventors in 1904. These new tungsten filament bulbs lasted longer and had a brighter light compared to the carbon filament bulbs. In 1913, Irving Langmuir figured out that placing an inert gas like nitrogen inside the bulb doubled its efficiency. Scientists continued to make improvements over the next 40 years that reduced the cost and increased the efficiency of the incandescent bulb. But by the 1950s, researchers still had only figured out how to convert about 10 percent of the energy the incandescent bulb used into light and began to focus their energy on other lighting solutions.

Energy Shortages Lead to Fluorescent Breakthroughs

In the 19th century, two Germans -- glassblower Heinrich Geissler and physician Julius Plücker -- discovered that they could produce light by removing almost all of the air from a long glass tube and passing an electrical current through it, an invention that became known as the Geissler tube. A type of discharge lamp, these lights didn’t gain popularity until the early 20th century when researchers began looking for a way to improve lighting efficiency. Discharge lamps became the basis of many lighting technologies, including neon lights, low-pressure sodium lamps (the type used in outdoor lighting such as streetlamps) and fluorescent lights .

Both Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla experimented with fluorescent lamps in the 1890s, but neither ever commercially produced them. Instead, it was Peter Cooper Hewitt’s breakthrough in the early 1900s that became one of the precursors to the fluorescent lamp. Hewitt created a blue-green light by passing an electric current through mercury vapor and incorporating a ballast (a device connected to the light bulb that regulates the flow of current through the tube). While the Cooper Hewitt lamps were more efficient than incandescent bulbs, they had few suitable uses because of the color of the light.

By the late 1920s and early 1930s, European researchers were doing experiments with neon tubes coated with phosphors (a material that absorbs ultraviolet light and converts the invisible light into useful white light). These findings sparked fluorescent lamp research programs in the U.S., and by the mid and late 1930s, American lighting companies were demonstrating fluorescent lights to the U.S. Navy and at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. These lights lasted longer and were about three times more efficient than incandescent bulbs. The need for energy-efficient lighting American war plants led to the rapid adoption of fluorescents, and by 1951, more light in the U.S. was being produced by linear fluorescent lamps .

It was another energy shortage -- the 1973 oil crisis -- that caused lighting engineers to develop a fluorescent bulb that could be used in residential applications. In 1974, researchers at Sylvania started investigating how they could miniaturize the ballast and tuck it into the lamp. While they developed a patent for their bulb, they couldn’t find a way to produce it feasibly. Two years later in 1976, Edward Hammer at General Electric figured out how to bend the fluorescent tube into a spiral shape, creating the first compact fluorescent light (CFL). Like Sylvania, General Electric shelved this design because the new machinery needed to mass-produce these lights was too expensive.

Early CFLs hit the market in the mid-1980s at retail prices of $25-35, but prices could vary widely by region because of the different promotions carried out by utility companies. Consumers pointed to the high price as their number one obstacle in purchasing CFLs. There were other problems -- many CFLs of 1990 were big and bulky, they didn’t fit well into fixtures, and they had low light output and inconsistent performance. Since the 1990s, improvements in CFL performance, price, efficiency (they use about 75 percent less energy than incandescents) and lifetime (they last about 10 times longer) have made them a viable option for both renters and homeowners. Nearly 30 years after CFLs were first introduced on the market, an ENERGY STAR® CFL costs as little as $1.74 per bulb when purchased in a four-pack.

LEDs: The Future is Here

One of the fastest developing lighting technologies today is the light-emitting diode (or LED). A type of solid-state lighting, LEDs use a semiconductor to convert electricity into light, are often small in area (less than 1 square millimeter) and emit light in a specific direction, reducing the need for reflectors and diffusers that can trap light.

They are also the most efficient lights on the market. Also called luminous efficacy , a light bulb’s efficiency is a measure of emitted light (lumens) divided by power it draws (watts). A bulb that is 100 percent efficient at converting energy into light would have an efficacy of 683 lm/W. To put this in context, a 60- to 100-watt incandescent bulb has an efficacy of 15 lm/W, an equivalent CFL has an efficacy of 73 lm/W, and current LED-based replacement bulbs on the market range from 70-120 lm/W with an average efficacy of 85 lm/W.

In 1962 while working for General Electric, Nick Holonyak, Jr., invented the first visible-spectrum LED in the form of red diodes. Pale yellow and green diodes were invented next. As companies continued to improve red diodes and their manufacturing, they began appeari

What are the key facts?

Like all great inventions, the light bulb can’t be credited to one inventor.

It was a series of small improvements on the ideas of previous inventors that have led to the light bulbs we use in our homes today.

Learn more about the history of the incandescent light bulb .

Explore the history of fluorescent lights , from the Geissler tube to CFLs.

Read about the advancements in LED lights .

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Thomas Edison

By: History.com Editors

Updated: October 17, 2023 | Original: November 9, 2009

The great American inventor Thomas Edison is surrounded by his creations.

Thomas Edison was a prolific inventor and savvy businessman who acquired a record number of 1,093 patents (singly or jointly) and was the driving force behind such innovations as the phonograph, the incandescent light bulb, the alkaline battery and one of the earliest motion picture cameras. He also created the world’s first industrial research laboratory. Known as the “Wizard of Menlo Park,” for the New Jersey town where he did some of his best-known work, Edison had become one of the most famous men in the world by the time he was in his 30s. In addition to his talent for invention, Edison was also a successful manufacturer who was highly skilled at marketing his inventions—and himself—to the public.

Thomas Edison’s Early Life

Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio. He was the seventh and last child born to Samuel Edison Jr. and Nancy Elliott Edison, and would be one of four to survive to adulthood. At age 12, he developed hearing loss—he was reportedly deaf in one ear, and nearly deaf in the other—which was variously attributed to scarlet fever, mastoiditis or a blow to the head.

Thomas Edison received little formal education, and left school in 1859 to begin working on the railroad between Detroit and Port Huron, Michigan, where his family then lived. By selling food and newspapers to train passengers, he was able to net about $50 profit each week, a substantial income at the time—especially for a 13-year-old.

Did you know? By the time he died at age 84 on October 18, 1931, Thomas Edison had amassed a record 1,093 patents: 389 for electric light and power, 195 for the phonograph, 150 for the telegraph, 141 for storage batteries and 34 for the telephone.

During the Civil War , Edison learned the emerging technology of telegraphy, and traveled around the country working as a telegrapher. But with the development of auditory signals for the telegraph, he was soon at a disadvantage as a telegrapher.

To address this problem, Edison began to work on inventing devices that would help make things possible for him despite his deafness (including a printer that would convert electrical telegraph signals to letters). In early 1869, he quit telegraphy to pursue invention full time.

Edison in Menlo Park

From 1870 to 1875, Edison worked out of Newark, New Jersey, where he developed telegraph-related products for both Western Union Telegraph Company (then the industry leader) and its rivals. Edison’s mother died in 1871, and that same year he married 16-year-old Mary Stillwell.

Despite his prolific telegraph work, Edison encountered financial difficulties by late 1875, but one year later—with the help of his father—Edison was able to build a laboratory and machine shop in Menlo Park, New Jersey, 12 miles south of Newark.

With the success of his Menlo Park “invention factory,” some historians credit Edison as the inventor of the research and development (R&D) lab, a collaborative, team-based model later copied by AT&T at Bell Labs , the DuPont Experimental Station , the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and other R&D centers.

In 1877, Edison developed the carbon transmitter, a device that improved the audibility of the telephone by making it possible to transmit voices at higher volume and with more clarity.

That same year, his work with the telegraph and telephone led him to invent the phonograph, which recorded sound as indentations on a sheet of paraffin-coated paper; when the paper was moved beneath a stylus, the sounds were reproduced. The device made an immediate splash, though it took years before it could be produced and sold commercially.

Edison and the Light Bulb

In 1878, Edison focused on inventing a safe, inexpensive electric light to replace the gaslight—a challenge that scientists had been grappling with for the last 50 years. With the help of prominent financial backers like J.P. Morgan and the Vanderbilt family, Edison set up the Edison Electric Light Company and began research and development.

He made a breakthrough in October 1879 with a bulb that used a platinum filament, and in the summer of 1880 hit on carbonized bamboo as a viable alternative for the filament, which proved to be the key to a long-lasting and affordable light bulb. In 1881, he set up an electric light company in Newark, and the following year moved his family (which by now included three children) to New York.

Though Edison’s early incandescent lighting systems had their problems, they were used in such acclaimed events as the Paris Lighting Exhibition in 1881 and the Crystal Palace in London in 1882.

Competitors soon emerged, notably Nikola Tesla, a proponent of alternating or AC current (as opposed to Edison’s direct or DC current). By 1889, AC current would come to dominate the field, and the Edison General Electric Co. merged with another company in 1892 to become General Electric .

Later Years and Inventions

Edison’s wife, Mary, died in August 1884, and in February 1886 he remarried Mirna Miller; they would have three children together. He built a large estate called Glenmont and a research laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, with facilities including a machine shop, a library and buildings for metallurgy, chemistry and woodworking.

Spurred on by others’ work on improving the phonograph, he began working toward producing a commercial model. He also had the idea of linking the phonograph to a zoetrope, a device that strung together a series of photographs in such a way that the images appeared to be moving. Working with William K.L. Dickson, Edison succeeded in constructing a working motion picture camera, the Kinetograph, and a viewing instrument, the Kinetoscope, which he patented in 1891.

After years of heated legal battles with his competitors in the fledgling motion-picture industry, Edison had stopped working with moving film by 1918. In the interim, he had had success developing an alkaline storage battery, which he originally worked on as a power source for the phonograph but later supplied for submarines and electric vehicles.

In 1912, automaker Henry Ford asked Edison to design a battery for the self-starter, which would be introduced on the iconic Model T . The collaboration began a continuing relationship between the two great American entrepreneurs.

Despite the relatively limited success of his later inventions (including his long struggle to perfect a magnetic ore-separator), Edison continued working into his 80s. His rise from poor, uneducated railroad worker to one of the most famous men in the world made him a folk hero.

More than any other individual, he was credited with building the framework for modern technology and society in the age of electricity. His Glenmont estate—where he died in 1931—and West Orange laboratory are now open to the public as the Thomas Edison National Historical Park .

Thomas Edison’s Greatest Invention. The Atlantic . Life of Thomas Alva Edison. Library of Congress . 7 Epic Fails Brought to You by the Genius Mind of Thomas Edison. Smithsonian Magazine .

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Home — Essay Samples — Science — Invention — History of Electricity: How the Light Bulb Changed the World

History of Electricity: How The Light Bulb Changed The World

Categories: Invention Light

About this sample

Words: 1040 |

Published: Nov 16, 2018

Words: 1040 | Pages: 2 | 6 min read

Works Cited

A Brief History of Lighting. (n.d.). Edison Tech Center.
Gas lighting. (n.d.). Environmental Health and Safety.
Kalinowski, A. (n.d.). The impact of the light bulb on society. Small Business. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/impact-light-bulb-society-4933.html
Palermo, E. (2017, October 20). How Edison invented the light bulb — and lots of myths about himself. Live Science.
The Practical Incandescent Light Bulb. (n.d.). The Franklin Institute. https://www.fi.edu/history-resources/practical-incandescent-light-bulb
Adams, S. (2018, February 9). How LED light bulbs work. Digital Trends.
Edison, T. A. (1879). United States Patent Office Patent No. 223,898: Electric Lamp.
Jakle, J. A. (1999). The history of the American streetlight, 1789-1975. University of Texas Press.
Schivelbusch, W. (1988). Disenchanted night: The industrialization of light in the nineteenth century. University of California Press.
Wilson, R. (2019, March 7). 15 innovations that shaped the modern world. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190306-15-innovations-that-shaped-the-modern-world

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Thomas Edison didn’t invent the light bulb—but here’s what he did do

With more than a thousand patents to his name, the legendary inventor's innovations helped define the modern world..

Thomas Edison had a hand in inventing revolutionary devices such as the movie camera, microphone, and ...

A container of leaked chemicals. A fire in a train car. As a young man, the list of reasons Thomas Alva Edison had been fired from his various jobs seemed as long as the eventual list of the patents he held.

Though the future inventor had revolutionary ideas that would change the course of the industries that hired and fired him, the young man had, in the words of his 1931 obituary in the New York Times , “achieved a reputation as the [telegraph] operator who couldn’t keep a job.”

As it turned out, Edison would become most famous for his legendary ability to apply himself—and his oft-repeated tenet that genius is “one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” He would go on to invent devices that defined the modern world—and perfect other groundbreaking innovations. His improvements on the lightbulb, for example, finally made it feasible for people everywhere to light their homes with electricity.

Here’s how the so-called “Wizard of Menlo Park” achieved such an outsized reputation—and why he is still known as one of the greatest inventors of all time.

A curious young man

Born in Ohio in 1847, Thomas Alva Edison spent his childhood in Port Huron, Michigan, where he received only brief formal schooling. His mother, a former schoolteacher, taught him at home from age seven on, and he read widely. His childhood adventures included ambitious chemistry experiments in his parents’ basement, marked with what his biographer characterised as “near explosions and near disasters.”

Pictured here around the age of 14, the young Thomas Alva Edison had revolutionary ideas—which often ...

Edison’s curiosity and entrepreneurial spirit led him to a job at the age of 12 as a “news butcher”—a peddler employed by railroads to hawk snacks, newspapers, and other goods to train passengers. Not content to sell the news, he also decided to print it, founding and publishing the first newspaper ever produced and printed on a moving train, the Grand Trunk Herald . He also performed chemistry experiments on the train.

By the age of 15, due to his unique ability to get fired for planning experiments and inventions in his head while on the job, Edison became an itinerant Western Union telegrapher before moving to New York to start his own workshop. The telegraph would ultimately inspire many of his first patented inventions. In 1874, at the age of 27, he invented the quadriplex telegraph , which allowed operators to send four messages simultaneously, increasing the industry’s efficiency without requiring the construction of new telegraph lines.

An early sketch of a light bulb made by Thomas Edison on February 13, 1880. The ...

Becoming the Wizard of Menlo Park

In the meantime, Edison had married one of his employees, Mary Stilwell, and together they moved to Menlo Park, New Jersey in 1876. The rural area was the perfect site for a new kind of laboratory that reflected its owner’s inventive, entrepreneurial spirit: a research and development facility where Edison and his “muckers,” as he called them, could build anything their imagination conjured.

Edison continued to improve on the telegraph, and as he worked on a machine that could record telegraphic messages, he wondered if it could record sound, too. He created a machine that translated the vibrations produced by speech into indentations on a piece of paper.

In 1877, now 30, Edison spoke the first two lines of “Mary had a little lamb” into the device and played it back using a hand crank. He had just invented what he called the Edison Speaking Phonograph. The same year, Edison developed an improved microphone transmitter, helping refine the telephone.

This 14-foot replica of an incandescent light bulb stands atop the Thomas Edison Memorial Tower at ...

The incandescent light bulb

Edison’s phonograph was groundbreaking, but it was primarily seen as a novelty. He had moved on to another world-changing concept: the incandescent light bulb.

Electric light bulbs had been around since the early 19th century, but they were delicate and short-lived due to their filaments—the part that produces light. One early form of electric light, the carbon arc light, relied on the vapour of battery-heated carbon rods to produce light. But they had to be lit by hand, and the bulbs flickered, hissed, and burned out easily. Other designs were too expensive and impractical to be widely used.

Edison’s, by contrast, were cheap, practical, and long-lasting. In 1879, after years of obsessively improving on the concept of light bulbs, he demonstrated a bulb that could last a record-breaking 14.5 hours.

“My light is at last a perfect one,” Edison bragged to a New York Times reporter that year. When people heard about the bulb, they flocked to Menlo Park, and hundreds of them viewed the laboratory—now brilliant with electric light—in a public demonstration on December 31, 1879.

“[Scientists’] opinion as well as the opinion unanimously expressed by the non-scientific was that Edison had in reality produced the light of the future,” reported the New York Herald .

In turn, a Black inventor named Lewis Latimer refined Edison’s improvement, making lightbulb filaments more durable and working to efficiently manufacture them. Meanwhile, Edison established an electric utility and worked toward innovations that would make electric light even more accessible.

One of the earliest known African-American inventors, Lewis Latimer played a key role in the development ...

Waging ‘Current War’

Edison’s inventions led to worldwide fame—and a cutthroat competition over electrical currents. Edison’s systems relied on direct current (DC)—which could only deliver electricity to a large number of buildings in a dense area. However, Edison’s competitors—including Nikola Tesla, a Serbian American inventor, and entrepreneur George Westinghouse—used alternating current (AC) systems, which were cheaper and could deliver electricity to customers over longer distances.

As AC systems spread, Edison used the press to wage war against Westinghouse and Tesla, attributing electricity-related deaths to AC and participating in an advertising campaign that showed the deadly potential of alternating current. The competition heightened when Edison funded public experiments that involved killing animals with AC. But its gruesome peak occurred when Edison, desperate to ensure his technology prevailed, secretly financed the invention and construction of the first electric chair—ensuring it ran on AC.

Despite the shock of his anti-AC campaign, Edison ultimately lost the current war due to the realities of pricing and his dwindling influence in the electric utility he had formed.

Edison’s later life

In 1884, tragedy struck when Mary died of a possible morphine overdose. Two years later, the 39-year-old Edison married 20-year-old Mina Miller. While wintering in Fort Myers, Florida, the couple met a man who would become one of Edison’s scientific collaborators later in life: Automobile pioneer and Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford.

During World War I, both Ford and Edison worried about the United States’ reliance on the U.K. for rubber, which was critical to the war effort. Together with Henry Firestone, who made his fortune selling rubber tires, the duo founded a research corporation and a lab to investigate potential U.S. native sources that could produce rubber. Though Edison thought goldenrod might be a substitute, the project never revealed a viable source for U.S.-made rubber.

Edison continued to make a name for himself through his seemingly endless energy for innovation and experimentation, which stretched from motion pictures—he opened the world’s first production studio, known as the Black Maria , in 1893—to talking dolls . He claimed to sleep just four hours a night, said he didn’t believe in exercise, and reportedly subsisted on a diet of milk and cigars for years. Eventually, he succumbed to complications of diabetes in 1931 at age 84.

Edison’s incandescent light bulb—and Latimer’s contributions to it—helped make lighting affordable and accessible around the world ...

Thomas Edison’s legacy

Remembered as the “wizard of Menlo Park,” Edison can be seen today in the myriad fields he influenced. From motion pictures to fluoroscopy to batteries, there’s seemingly no corner of technological innovation he didn’t touch—and during his lifetime, he gained 1,093 patents in his name in the U.S. alone.

During his life, he was criticised for what some felt was a slipshod approach to innovation. But Edison’s ceaseless energy for invention, and his willingness to try anything and everything along the way, gained him the reputation of one of the greatest minds in American history.

“Every incandescent light is his remembrancer,” wrote the New York Times after his death. “Every powerhouse is his monument. Wherever there is a phonograph or radio, wherever there is a moving picture, mute or speaking, EDISON lives.”

Exploration
Physical Sciences

HISTORY & CULTURE

Thomas Edison didn’t invent the light bulb—but here’s what he did do

With more than a thousand patents to his name, the legendary inventor's innovations helped define the modern world.

Here’s how the so-called “Wizard of Menlo Park” achieved such an outsized reputation—and why he is still known as one of the greatest inventors of all time.

A curious young man

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By the age of 15, due to his unique ability to get fired for planning experiments and inventions in his head while on the job, Edison became an itinerant Western Union telegrapher before moving to New York to start his own workshop. The telegraph would ultimately inspire many of his first patented inventions. In 1874, at the age of 27, he invented the quadriplex telegraph , which allowed telegraphers to send four messages simultaneously, increasing the industry’s efficiency without requiring the construction of new telegraph lines.

Becoming the Wizard of Menlo Park

The incandescent light bulb

Edison’s phonograph was groundbreaking, but it was primarily seen as a novelty. He had moved on to another world-changing concept: the incandescent light bulb.

Electric light bulbs had been around since the early 19th century, but they were delicate and short-lived due to their filaments—the part that produces light. One early form of electric light, the carbon arc light, relied on the vapor of battery-heated carbon rods to produce light. But they had to be lit by hand, and the bulbs flickered, hissed, and burned out easily. Other designs were too expensive and impractical to be widely used.

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“[Scientists’] opinion as well as the opinion unanimously expressed by the non-scientific was that Edison had in reality produced the light of the future,” reported the New York Herald .

Waging ‘Current War’

Despite the shock of his anti-AC campaign, Edison ultimately lost the current war due to the realities of pricing and his dwindling influence in the electric utility he had formed.

Edison’s later life

During World War I, both Ford and Edison worried about the United States’ reliance on the United Kingdom for rubber, which was critical to the war effort. Together with Henry Firestone, who made his fortune selling rubber tires, the duo founded a research corporation and a lab to investigate potential U.S. native sources that could produce rubber. Though Edison thought goldenrod might be a substitute, the project never revealed a viable source for U.S.-made rubber.

Thomas Edison’s legacy

During his life, he was criticized for what some felt was a slipshod approach to innovation. But Edison’s ceaseless energy for invention, and his willingness to try anything and everything along the way, gained him the reputation of one of the greatest minds in American history.

This ancient society helped build the modern world.

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The Viking origins of your Bluetooth devices

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Brought to you by CU Engineering (University of Colorado Boulder)

FREE K-12 standards-aligned STEM

curriculum for educators everywhere!

Find more at TeachEngineering.org .

TeachEngineering
The Energy of Light

Lesson The Energy of Light

Grade Level: 4 (3-5)

Time Required: 15 minutes

Lesson Dependency: None

Subject Areas: Earth and Space, Physical Science, Science and Technology

NGSS Performance Expectations:

Print lesson and its associated curriculum

Curriculum in this Unit Units serve as guides to a particular content or subject area. Nested under units are lessons (in purple) and hands-on activities (in blue). Note that not all lessons and activities will exist under a unit, and instead may exist as "standalone" curriculum.

Water Power
Solar Power
Stations of Light
Capturing the Sun's Warmth
Cooking with the Sun: Comparing Yummy Solar Cooker Designs
Design and Test Model Solar Water Heaters
Design a Solar City
Power to the People

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Engineering connection, learning objectives, worksheets and attachments, more curriculum like this, introduction/motivation, associated activities, lesson closure, vocabulary/definitions, user comments & tips.

Engineers help design and create healthier tomorrows

Engineers use the properties of light to create many things that benefit society. To reduce our energy use, lighting engineers take advantage of natural light, sometimes reflecting sunlight off room surfaces to bring light to locations at a distance from windows. Engineers create lasers that are so bright that they can burn through metal. Lasers are used in industry, medicine and surgery, to make holograms, read bar codes and compact disks, and send messages along fiber-optic cables. The properties of light are also exploited in the design of medical equipment, cameras and microscopes.

After this lesson, students should be able to:

Explain that light is a form of energy and that it can be characterized as a wave.
Explain that different colors of the spectrum represent light waves vibrating at different frequencies.
Describe reflection and refraction of light waves.
Explain how engineers use light waves.

Educational Standards Each TeachEngineering lesson or activity is correlated to one or more K-12 science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) educational standards. All 100,000+ K-12 STEM standards covered in TeachEngineering are collected, maintained and packaged by the Achievement Standards Network (ASN) , a project of D2L (www.achievementstandards.org). In the ASN, standards are hierarchically structured: first by source; e.g. , by state; within source by type; e.g. , science or mathematics; within type by subtype, then by grade, etc .

Ngss: next generation science standards - science, international technology and engineering educators association - technology.

View aligned curriculum

Do you agree with this alignment? Thanks for your feedback!

State Standards

Colorado - science.

What is light? Can you give an example of light? (Possible answers: Light bulb, flashlight, the sun.) From where does light come? Light is a form of energy. Items such as light bulbs and television screens give off this light energy. Our eyes change visible light energy waves into something we can see. Visible light energy is just one form of light energy . There are invisible forms of light energy, or light energy we cannot see, such as infrared, ultraviolet, radio and x-ray light energy. All light energy is generated by light waves .

Demonstration idea: If a slinky is available, use it to show how waves vibrate in different wavelengths . Explain how the different "wavelengths" correspond to different colors. Use the slinky to show the class that waves can vibrate in any plane (vertical, horizontal or any angle in between). White light contains all of the wavelengths of the visible spectrum and all of the possible angles shown by the slinky.

Color is a product of visible light energy. Different colors represent light waves vibrating at different speeds (frequencies). Do you know that most colors of light can be made by mixing together just three colors—red, blue and green?

Light has other properties that make it fun to learn about. Light waves can bounce off an object; this is called reflection . You can see this when you look at your reflection in a mirror or you see the sky and clouds reflected in a pool of water. The light bounces off the shiny surface (mirror glass or water) back at us. Light waves can also refract ; this happens when the light waves are bent as they pass through a clear object. The lens in a pair of eye glasses helps people see more clearly by bending the light rays to help the person's eye adjust images for a distance close up or far away. Refer to the Stations of Light activity to have students examine light energy behavior: refraction, magnification, prisms and polarization.

Different length light waves are all reflected in the same way, but not refracted the same. In refraction, red light waves bend the least and violet light waves bend the most, which gives us a rainbow effect when light bounces off prisms, glass and raindrops.

The brightness of any light source is determined by the amount of light energy it contains. Do you know that a laser light is even brighter than sunlight? It has so much concentrated energy that it can burn through metal. Engineers use lasers in hundreds of ways—in industry, medicine and surgery, to make holograms, read bar codes and compact disks, and send messages along fiber-optic cables.

The sun and other stars emit radio waves, sending them through space. To detect them on Earth, aerospace engineers use radio telescopes. These huge disks face the sky to collect and focus wave energy. The largest single-dish radio telescope is at Arecibo, Puerto Rico. The dish is built into karst topography—a natural hollow in the ground—and is 1,000 feet across. As the Earth moves, the disk turns to point at different parts of the sky.

Light energy is used by engineers in many other ways as well. Engineers have learned to control light using things like prisms and magnifying lenses . Engineers use light for developing medical equipment, x-ray machines, telescopes, cameras, computers and microscopes. Engineers need to know how light energy works to be able to create these cool products and equipment that help people every day. Today we are going to learn more about light energy and where it is found all around us.

Lesson Background and Concepts for Teachers

Light is a type of energy formed by a combination of electrical and magnetic rays, known as electromagnetic (EM) waves. (For a good, basic description and graphics on the electromagnetic spectrum , see NASA's Imagine the Universe website at http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/emspectrum.html.) Use the attached Electromagnetic Spectrum for a classroom visual aid; it is suitable for making overhead projector transparencies or student handouts.

A diagram shows a range of wavelengths: gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet, visible, infrared, microwave and radio—and examples of them, such as a radio, microwaved food, a seeing eye, the Sun, bones of an x-ray of a hand.

Visible light is only one type of EM wave. We use different kinds of electromagnetic waves for many different purposes. Radio transmitters, for example, generate artificial radio waves that carry radio and television programs in coded form by varying the height of the waves.

We see light. We use light every day, in endless ways. Light is a type of energy created by a combination of electrical and magnetic fields. In some ways, light travels as waves giving it typical wave features. For example, the color of light depends on the length of the wavelength of the beam of light. However, in other ways, light seems to be a stream of tiny particles or packets of energy called photons . Scientists have come to accept both of these ways of understanding light. They call the combination of these two properties the "wave-particle duality" of light. Nothing travels faster than light, which travels at a speed of 186,000 miles (299,792 kilometers) per second.

Watch this activity on YouTube

Today we learned about light energy. Light energy travels in waves. What are the types of light energy? (Answer: Visible, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray and radio.) What type of light energy do colors fall into? (Answer: Visible light energy.) What are some properties of light energy? (Answer: Reflection, refraction, waves, photons, wavelengths.) What is reflection? (Answer: When light bounces off the surface of an object.) What is refraction? (Answer: When light bends as it passes through a material.) Engineers use light to create many things that benefit our society. What are some objects that engineers use to control light energy? (Possible answers: Eye glasses, microscopes, medical equipment, magnifying glasses, prisms, polarized sunglasses.) When you go home tonight, tell a friend or family member what you learned about light energy and point out something around you that an engineer has designed that uses light energy, such as a lamp, camera lens, reading glasses, television or computer.

electromagnetic spectrum: The entire range of wavelengths or frequencies of electromagnetic radiation extending from gamma rays to the longest radio waves and including visible light. In order of decreasing frequency: cosmic-ray photons, gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet radiation, visible light, infrared radiation, microwaves and radio waves.

lens: A curved piece of glass that refracts light waves.

light energy: Visible light energy, such as from a light bulb, fireflies, computer screens or stars, is one form of electromagnetic energy. Others forms include infrared, ultraviolet, radio and x-ray. Your eyes are detectors of visible light energy.

light speed: The speed at which light travels in a vacuum. Defined as exactly 299,792,458 meters per second. (A measure of speed.)

light year: The distance that light travels in a vacuum in one year. Defined as 9.46 trillion kilometers or 5.88 trillion miles. (A measure of distance, not time.)

photon: A tiny particle or packet of energy. The quantum of electromagnetic energy, generally regarded as a discrete particle having zero mass, no electric charge and an indefinitely long lifetime.

polarization: The phenomenon in which waves of light or other radiation are restricted in direction of vibration.

prism: A solid figure whose bases or ends have the same size and shape and are parallel to one another, and each of whose sides is a parallelogram. A transparent body of this form, often of glass and usually with triangular ends, used for separating white light passed through it into a spectrum or for reflecting beams of light.

reflect: To give back or show an image of an object, for example, in a mirror. Light reflects or "bounces" off the surface of an object.

refract: The bending of light as it crosses the between the surface of two transparent materials.

refraction: The ability of light to bend when it crosses a transparent medium.

wave: (Physics) A disturbance traveling through a medium by which energy is transferred from one particle of the medium to another without causing any permanent displacement of the medium itself.

wavelength: The length between peaks or troughs of a wave. This distance determines the color of a beam of light.

Pre-Lesson Assessment

Know / Want to Know / Learn (KWL) Chart: Before the lesson, ask students to write down in the top left corner of a piece of paper (or as a group on the board) under the title, Know , all the things they know about light energy. Next, in the top right corner under the title, Want to Know , ask students to write down anything they want to know about light energy. After the lesson, ask students to list in the bottom half of the page under the title, Learned , all of the things that they have learned about light energy.

Post-Introduction Assessment

Discussion: As a class, review and discuss students' understanding of light energy. Ask the students:

What are some types of light energy we have discussed? (Answers: Visible, x-ray, radio, ultraviolet, infrared.)
Which is brighter, a laser or the sun? (Answer: A laser, because it has more concentrated light energy than the sun.)
What other type of energy does the sun give off? (Answer: Besides light, the sun also gives off heat.)
Can you hear someone yell in the room next door? (Remind students that sound must travel through matter [air, walls, etc.].) Does light function in the same way? (Point out that we receive light from the sun through the vacuum of space. Light can move through air, water, glass and other transparent material.)
Can you see a black cat in the dark? Why or why not? (Explain that when we see an object, our eyes are detecting the light reflecting off of the object. So, our eyes cannot detect anything in the absence of light. Black objects reflect no light; white objects reflect all light.)

Lesson Summary Assessment

Roundtable: Have the class form into teams of 3-5 students each. Ask the class a question with several possible answers: How does an engineer use light energy? Have the students on each team make a list of answers by taking turns writing down ideas on a piece of paper. Students pass the list around the group until all ideas are exhausted. Have teams read aloud the answers and/or write them on the board.

KWL Chart (Conclusion): After the lesson, ask students to list in the bottom half of the page under the title, Learned (or on the board), all of the things that they have learned about light energy.

Class Definitions: To reinforce knowledge, have students develop their own definitions for refraction, reflection, visible light and wavelength. Do this in a class discussion or in teams in which the students develop a definition (written and/or illustrated) and read it aloud to the rest of the class. Post the class definitions in the classroom or on the board.

Lesson Extension Activities

For an excellent demonstration showing the refraction and reflection of light, shine a multimedia laser pointer into a fishbowl. Fill the fishbowl with water, place a mirror in the bottom, turn off the lights and shine a laser pointer into the water.

Students learn about the science and math that explain light behavior, which engineers have exploited to create sunglasses. They examine tinted and polarized lenses, learn about light polarization, transmission, reflection, intensity, attenuation, and how different mediums reduce the intensities of ...

preview of 'Electromagnetic Waves: How Do Sunglasses Work? ' Lesson

During this lesson, the electromagnetic spectrum is explained and students learn that visible light makes up only a portion of this wide spectrum. Students also learn that engineers use electromagnetic waves for many different applications.

preview of 'Visible Light and the Electromagnetic Spectrum' Lesson

Student groups rotate through four stations to examine light energy behavior: refraction, magnification, prisms and polarization. They see how a beam of light is refracted (bent) through various transparent mediums. While learning how a magnifying glass works, students see how the orientation of an ...

Students learn the basic properties of light — the concepts of light absorption, transmission, reflection and refraction, as well as the behavior of light during interference. Lecture information briefly addresses the electromagnetic spectrum and then provides more in-depth information on visible li...

preview of 'Learning Light's Properties' Lesson

Dictionary.com. Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. Accessed September 22, 2005. (Source of some vocabulary definitions, with some adaptation.) http://www.dictionary.com/

Electromagnetic Spectrum . Updated 1997-2005. NASA's Imagine the Universe, Goddard Space Flight Center. Accessed September 22, 2005. (Good basic description and graphics) http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/emspectrum.html

Graham, I., Taylor, B, Farndon, J. and Oxlade, C. Science Encyclopedia . 1999, p. 78-90.

Irving, Bruce. Optics for Kids: Science and Engineering . Optical Research Associates, Pasadena, CA. Accessed September 28, 2005. (Excellent resource with graphics) http://www.opticalres.com/kidoptx.html

Contributors

Supporting program, acknowledgements.

The contents of this digital library curriculum were developed under grants from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education and National Science Foundation (GK-12 grant no. DGE 0338326). However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policies of the Department of Education or National Science Foundation, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.

Last modified: January 28, 2021

1 Minute Speech on Light In English

A very good morning to one and all present here. Today, I will be giving a short speech on the topic of ‘light’.

There are several definitions for the word light. Let us try to look at some of them.

The first definition, as given by Google, would be, “the natural agent that stimulates sight and makes things visible.” This perhaps is the most obvious definition of light wherein any form that provides a reprieve from darkness is considered to be a source of light. Some examples would be the Sun, the most major source of light, fire, tubelights, bulbs, flashlights, and torches.

The above definition is for light as a noun. Here, “traffic lights” for example are a symbol of regulations.

As a verb, to light would be the act of lighting, say fire. As an adjective, light could denote a shade of colour, as in light pink or light blue. Or, it could be an adjective to describe a place well ventilated- say, a “light room”.

Thank you.

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Al Gore's Speech On Renewable Energy

Listen: gore speaks on energy and global warming from d.a.r constitution hall.

Following is the prepared text of former Vice President Al Gore's speech in Washington Thursday about renewable energy. Source: AlGore.com.

There are times in the history of our nation when our very way of life depends upon dispelling illusions and awakening to the challenge of a present danger. In such moments, we are called upon to move quickly and boldly to shake off complacency, throw aside old habits and rise, clear-eyed and alert, to the necessity of big changes. Those who, for whatever reason, refuse to do their part must either be persuaded to join the effort or asked to step aside. This is such a moment. The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk. And even more - if more should be required - the future of human civilization is at stake.

I don't remember a time in our country when so many things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously. Our economy is in terrible shape and getting worse, gasoline prices are increasing dramatically, and so are electricity rates. Jobs are being outsourced. Home mortgages are in trouble. Banks, automobile companies and other institutions we depend upon are under growing pressure. Distinguished senior business leaders are telling us that this is just the beginning unless we find the courage to make some major changes quickly.

The climate crisis, in particular, is getting a lot worse - much more quickly than predicted. Scientists with access to data from Navy submarines traversing underneath the North polar ice cap have warned that there is now a 75 percent chance that within five years the entire ice cap will completely disappear during the summer months. This will further increase the melting pressure on Greenland. According to experts, the Jakobshavn glacier, one of Greenland's largest, is moving at a faster rate than ever before, losing 20 million tons of ice every day, equivalent to the amount of water used every year by the residents of New York City.

Two major studies from military intelligence experts have warned our leaders about the dangerous national security implications of the climate crisis, including the possibility of hundreds of millions of climate refugees destabilizing nations around the world.

Just two days ago, 27 senior statesmen and retired military leaders warned of the national security threat from an "energy tsunami" that would be triggered by a loss of our access to foreign oil. Meanwhile, the war in Iraq continues, and now the war in Afghanistan appears to be getting worse.

And by the way, our weather sure is getting strange, isn't it? There seem to be more tornadoes than in living memory, longer droughts, bigger downpours and record floods. Unprecedented fires are burning in California and elsewhere in the American West. Higher temperatures lead to drier vegetation that makes kindling for mega-fires of the kind that have been raging in Canada, Greece, Russia, China, South America, Australia and Africa. Scientists in the Department of Geophysics and Planetary Science at Tel Aviv University tell us that for every one degree increase in temperature, lightning strikes will go up another 10 percent. And it is lightning, after all, that is principally responsible for igniting the conflagration in California today.

Like a lot of people, it seems to me that all these problems are bigger than any of the solutions that have thus far been proposed for them, and that's been worrying me.

I'm convinced that one reason we've seemed paralyzed in the face of these crises is our tendency to offer old solutions to each crisis separately - without taking the others into account. And these outdated proposals have not only been ineffective - they almost always make the other crises even worse.

Yet when we look at all three of these seemingly intractable challenges at the same time, we can see the common thread running through them, deeply ironic in its simplicity: our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of all three of these challenges - the economic, environmental and national security crises.

We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that's got to change.

But if we grab hold of that common thread and pull it hard, all of these complex problems begin to unravel and we will find that we're holding the answer to all of them right in our hand.

The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels.

In my search for genuinely effective answers to the climate crisis, I have held a series of "solutions summits" with engineers, scientists, and CEOs. In those discussions, one thing has become abundantly clear: when you connect the dots, it turns out that the real solutions to the climate crisis are the very same measures needed to renew our economy and escape the trap of ever-rising energy prices. Moreover, they are also the very same solutions we need to guarantee our national security without having to go to war in the Persian Gulf.

What if we could use fuels that are not expensive, don't cause pollution and are abundantly available right here at home?

We have such fuels. Scientists have confirmed that enough solar energy falls on the surface of the earth every 40 minutes to meet 100 percent of the entire world's energy needs for a full year. Tapping just a small portion of this solar energy could provide all of the electricity America uses.

And enough wind power blows through the Midwest corridor every day to also meet 100 percent of US electricity demand. Geothermal energy, similarly, is capable of providing enormous supplies of electricity for America.

The quickest, cheapest and best way to start using all this renewable energy is in the production of electricity. In fact, we can start right now using solar power, wind power and geothermal power to make electricity for our homes and businesses.

But to make this exciting potential a reality, and truly solve our nation's problems, we need a new start.

That's why I'm proposing today a strategic initiative designed to free us from the crises that are holding us down and to regain control of our own destiny. It's not the only thing we need to do. But this strategic challenge is the lynchpin of a bold new strategy needed to re-power America.

Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years.

This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative. It represents a challenge to all Americans - in every walk of life: to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and to every citizen.

A few years ago, it would not have been possible to issue such a challenge. But here's what's changed: the sharp cost reductions now beginning to take place in solar, wind, and geothermal power - coupled with the recent dramatic price increases for oil and coal - have radically changed the economics of energy.

When I first went to Congress 32 years ago, I listened to experts testify that if oil ever got to $35 a barrel, then renewable sources of energy would become competitive. Well, today, the price of oil is over $135 per barrel. And sure enough, billions of dollars of new investment are flowing into the development of concentrated solar thermal, photovoltaics, windmills, geothermal plants, and a variety of ingenious new ways to improve our efficiency and conserve presently wasted energy.

And as the demand for renewable energy grows, the costs will continue to fall. Let me give you one revealing example: the price of the specialized silicon used to make solar cells was recently as high as $300 per kilogram. But the newest contracts have prices as low as $50 a kilogram.

You know, the same thing happened with computer chips - also made out of silicon. The price paid for the same performance came down by 50 percent every 18 months - year after year, and that's what's happened for 40 years in a row.

To those who argue that we do not yet have the technology to accomplish these results with renewable energy: I ask them to come with me to meet the entrepreneurs who will drive this revolution. I've seen what they are doing and I have no doubt that we can meet this challenge.

To those who say the costs are still too high: I ask them to consider whether the costs of oil and coal will ever stop increasing if we keep relying on quickly depleting energy sources to feed a rapidly growing demand all around the world. When demand for oil and coal increases, their price goes up. When demand for solar cells increases, the price often comes down.

When we send money to foreign countries to buy nearly 70 percent of the oil we use every day, they build new skyscrapers and we lose jobs. When we spend that money building solar arrays and windmills, we build competitive industries and gain jobs here at home.

Of course there are those who will tell us this can't be done. Some of the voices we hear are the defenders of the status quo - the ones with a vested interest in perpetuating the current system, no matter how high a price the rest of us will have to pay. But even those who reap the profits of the carbon age have to recognize the inevitability of its demise. As one OPEC oil minister observed, "The Stone Age didn't end because of a shortage of stones."

To those who say 10 years is not enough time, I respectfully ask them to consider what the world's scientists are telling us about the risks we face if we don't act in 10 years. The leading experts predict that we have less than 10 years to make dramatic changes in our global warming pollution lest we lose our ability to ever recover from this environmental crisis. When the use of oil and coal goes up, pollution goes up. When the use of solar, wind and geothermal increases, pollution comes down.

To those who say the challenge is not politically viable: I suggest they go before the American people and try to defend the status quo. Then bear witness to the people's appetite for change.

I for one do not believe our country can withstand 10 more years of the status quo. Our families cannot stand 10 more years of gas price increases. Our workers cannot stand 10 more years of job losses and outsourcing of factories. Our economy cannot stand 10 more years of sending $2 billion every 24 hours to foreign countries for oil. And our soldiers and their families cannot take another 10 years of repeated troop deployments to dangerous regions that just happen to have large oil supplies.

What could we do instead for the next 10 years? What should we do during the next 10 years? Some of our greatest accomplishments as a nation have resulted from commitments to reach a goal that fell well beyond the next election: the Marshall Plan, Social Security, the interstate highway system. But a political promise to do something 40 years from now is universally ignored because everyone knows that it's meaningless. Ten years is about the maximum time that we as a nation can hold a steady aim and hit our target.

When President John F. Kennedy challenged our nation to land a man on the moon and bring him back safely in 10 years, many people doubted we could accomplish that goal. But 8 years and 2 months later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the surface of the moon.

To be sure, reaching the goal of 100 percent renewable and truly clean electricity within 10 years will require us to overcome many obstacles. At present, for example, we do not have a unified national grid that is sufficiently advanced to link the areas where the sun shines and the wind blows to the cities in the East and the West that need the electricity. Our national electric grid is critical infrastructure, as vital to the health and security of our economy as our highways and telecommunication networks. Today, our grids are antiquated, fragile, and vulnerable to cascading failure. Power outages and defects in the current grid system cost US businesses more than $120 billion dollars a year. It has to be upgraded anyway.

We could further increase the value and efficiency of a Unified National Grid by helping our struggling auto giants switch to the manufacture of plug-in electric cars. An electric vehicle fleet would sharply reduce the cost of driving a car, reduce pollution, and increase the flexibility of our electricity grid.

At the same time, of course, we need to greatly improve our commitment to efficiency and conservation. That's the best investment we can make.

America's transition to renewable energy sources must also include adequate provisions to assist those Americans who would unfairly face hardship. For example, we must recognize those who have toiled in dangerous conditions to bring us our present energy supply. We should guarantee good jobs in the fresh air and sunshine for any coal miner displaced by impacts on the coal industry. Every single one of them.

Of course, we could and should speed up this transition by insisting that the price of carbon-based energy include the costs of the environmental damage it causes. I have long supported a sharp reduction in payroll taxes with the difference made up in CO2 taxes. We should tax what we burn, not what we earn. This is the single most important policy change we can make.

In order to foster international cooperation, it is also essential that the United States rejoin the global community and lead efforts to secure an international treaty at Copenhagen in December of next year that includes a cap on CO2 emissions and a global partnership that recognizes the necessity of addressing the threats of extreme poverty and disease as part of the world's agenda for solving the climate crisis.

Of course the greatest obstacle to meeting the challenge of 100 percent renewable electricity in 10 years may be the deep dysfunction of our politics and our self-governing system as it exists today. In recent years, our politics has tended toward incremental proposals made up of small policies designed to avoid offending special interests, alternating with occasional baby steps in the right direction. Our democracy has become sclerotic at a time when these crises require boldness.

It is only a truly dysfunctional system that would buy into the perverse logic that the short-term answer to high gasoline prices is drilling for more oil ten years from now.

Am I the only one who finds it strange that our government so often adopts a so-called solution that has absolutely nothing to do with the problem it is supposed to address? When people rightly complain about higher gasoline prices, we propose to give more money to the oil companies and pretend that they're going to bring gasoline prices down. It will do nothing of the sort, and everyone knows it. If we keep going back to the same policies that have never ever worked in the past and have served only to produce the highest gasoline prices in history alongside the greatest oil company profits in history, nobody should be surprised if we get the same result over and over again. But the Congress may be poised to move in that direction anyway because some of them are being stampeded by lobbyists for special interests that know how to make the system work for them instead of the American people.

If you want to know the truth about gasoline prices, here it is: the exploding demand for oil, especially in places like China, is overwhelming the rate of new discoveries by so much that oil prices are almost certain to continue upward over time no matter what the oil companies promise. And politicians cannot bring gasoline prices down in the short term.

However, there actually is one extremely effective way to bring the costs of driving a car way down within a few short years. The way to bring gas prices down is to end our dependence on oil and use the renewable sources that can give us the equivalent of $1 per gallon gasoline.

Many Americans have begun to wonder whether or not we've simply lost our appetite for bold policy solutions. And folks who claim to know how our system works these days have told us we might as well forget about our political system doing anything bold, especially if it is contrary to the wishes of special interests. And I've got to admit, that sure seems to be the way things have been going. But I've begun to hear different voices in this country from people who are not only tired of baby steps and special interest politics, but are hungry for a new, different and bold approach.

We are on the eve of a presidential election. We are in the midst of an international climate treaty process that will conclude its work before the end of the first year of the new president's term. It is a great error to say that the United States must wait for others to join us in this matter. In fact, we must move first, because that is the key to getting others to follow; and because moving first is in our own national interest.

So I ask you to join with me to call on every candidate, at every level, to accept this challenge - for America to be running on 100 percent zero-carbon electricity in 10 years. It's time for us to move beyond empty rhetoric. We need to act now.

This is a generational moment. A moment when we decide our own path and our collective fate. I'm asking you - each of you - to join me and build this future. Please join the WE campaign at wecansolveit.org.We need you. And we need you now. We're committed to changing not just light bulbs, but laws. And laws will only change with leadership.

On July 16, 1969, the United States of America was finally ready to meet President Kennedy's challenge of landing Americans on the moon. I will never forget standing beside my father a few miles from the launch site, waiting for the giant Saturn 5 rocket to lift Apollo 11 into the sky. I was a young man, 21 years old, who had graduated from college a month before and was enlisting in the United States Army three weeks later.

I will never forget the inspiration of those minutes. The power and the vibration of the giant rocket's engines shook my entire body. As I watched the rocket rise, slowly at first and then with great speed, the sound was deafening. We craned our necks to follow its path until we were looking straight up into the air. And then four days later, I watched along with hundreds of millions of others around the world as Neil Armstrong took one small step to the surface of the moon and changed the history of the human race.

We must now lift our nation to reach another goal that will change history. Our entire civilization depends upon us now embarking on a new journey of exploration and discovery. Our success depends on our willingness as a people to undertake this journey and to complete it within 10 years. Once again, we have an opportunity to take a giant leap for humankind.

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112 Persuasive Speech Topics That Are Actually Engaging

What’s covered:, how to pick an awesome persuasive speech topic, 112 engaging persuasive speech topics, tips for preparing your persuasive speech.

Writing a stellar persuasive speech requires a carefully crafted argument that will resonate with your audience to sway them to your side. This feat can be challenging to accomplish, but an engaging, thought-provoking speech topic is an excellent place to start.

When it comes time to select a topic for your persuasive speech, you may feel overwhelmed by all the options to choose from—or your brain may be drawing a completely blank slate. If you’re having trouble thinking of the perfect topic, don’t worry. We’re here to help!

In this post, we’re sharing how to choose the perfect persuasive speech topic and tips to prepare for your speech. Plus, you’ll find 112 persuasive speech topics that you can take directly from us or use as creative inspiration for your own ideas!

Choose Something You’re Passionate About

It’s much easier to write, research, and deliver a speech about a cause you care about. Even if it’s challenging to find a topic that completely sparks your interest, try to choose a topic that aligns with your passions.

However, keep in mind that not everyone has the same interests as you. Try to choose a general topic to grab the attention of the majority of your audience, but one that’s specific enough to keep them engaged.

For example, suppose you’re giving a persuasive speech about book censorship. In that case, it’s probably too niche to talk about why “To Kill a Mockingbird” shouldn’t be censored (even if it’s your favorite book), and it’s too broad to talk about media censorship in general.

Steer Clear of Cliches

Have you already heard a persuasive speech topic presented dozens of times? If so, it’s probably not an excellent choice for your speech—even if it’s an issue you’re incredibly passionate about.

Although polarizing topics like abortion and climate control are important to discuss, they aren’t great persuasive speech topics. Most people have already formed an opinion on these topics, which will either cause them to tune out or have a negative impression of your speech.

Instead, choose topics that are fresh, unique, and new. If your audience has never heard your idea presented before, they will be more open to your argument and engaged in your speech.

Have a Clear Side of Opposition

For a persuasive speech to be engaging, there must be a clear side of opposition. To help determine the arguability of your topic, ask yourself: “If I presented my viewpoint on this topic to a group of peers, would someone disagree with me?” If the answer is yes, then you’ve chosen a great topic!

Now that we’ve laid the groundwork for what it takes to choose a great persuasive speech topic, here are over one hundred options for you to choose from.

Should high school athletes get tested for steroids?
Should schools be required to have physical education courses?
Should sports grades in school depend on things like athletic ability?
What sport should be added to or removed from the Olympics?
Should college athletes be able to make money off of their merchandise?
Should sports teams be able to recruit young athletes without a college degree?
Should we consider video gamers as professional athletes?
Is cheerleading considered a sport?
Should parents allow their kids to play contact sports?
Should professional female athletes be paid the same as professional male athletes?
Should college be free at the undergraduate level?
Is the traditional college experience obsolete?
Should you choose a major based on your interests or your potential salary?
Should high school students have to meet a required number of service hours before graduating?
Should teachers earn more or less based on how their students perform on standardized tests?
Are private high schools more effective than public high schools?
Should there be a minimum number of attendance days required to graduate?
Are GPAs harmful or helpful?
Should schools be required to teach about standardized testing?
Should Greek Life be banned in the United States?
Should schools offer science classes explicitly about mental health?
Should students be able to bring their cell phones to school?
Should all public restrooms be all-gender?
Should undocumented immigrants have the same employment and education opportunities as citizens?
Should everyone be paid a living wage regardless of their employment status?
Should supremacist groups be able to hold public events?
Should guns be allowed in public places?
Should the national drinking age be lowered?
Should prisoners be allowed to vote?
Should the government raise or lower the retirement age?
Should the government be able to control the population?
Is the death penalty ethical?

Environment

Should stores charge customers for plastic bags?
Should breeding animals (dogs, cats, etc.) be illegal?
Is it okay to have exotic animals as pets?
Should people be fined for not recycling?
Should compost bins become mandatory for restaurants?
Should electric vehicles have their own transportation infrastructure?
Would heavier fining policies reduce corporations’ emissions?
Should hunting be encouraged or illegal?
Should reusable diapers replace disposable diapers?

Science & Technology

Is paper media more reliable than digital news sources?
Should automated/self-driving cars be legalized?
Should schools be required to provide laptops to all students?
Should software companies be able to have pre-downloaded programs and applications on devices?
Should drones be allowed in military warfare?
Should scientists invest more or less money into cancer research?
Should cloning be illegal?
Should societies colonize other planets?
Should there be legal oversight over the development of technology?

Social Media

Should there be an age limit on social media?
Should cyberbullying have the same repercussions as in-person bullying?
Are online relationships as valuable as in-person relationships?
Does “cancel culture” have a positive or negative impact on societies?
Are social media platforms reliable information or news sources?
Should social media be censored?
Does social media create an unrealistic standard of beauty?
Is regular social media usage damaging to real-life interactions?
Is social media distorting democracy?
How many branches of government should there be?
Who is the best/worst president of all time?
How long should judges serve in the U.S. Supreme Court?
Should a more significant portion of the U.S. budget be contributed towards education?
Should the government invest in rapid transcontinental transportation infrastructure?
Should airport screening be more or less stringent?
Should the electoral college be dismantled?
Should the U.S. have open borders?
Should the government spend more or less money on space exploration?
Should students sing Christmas carols, say the pledge of allegiance, or perform other tangentially religious activities?
Should nuns and priests become genderless roles?
Should schools and other public buildings have prayer rooms?
Should animal sacrifice be legal if it occurs in a religious context?
Should countries be allowed to impose a national religion on their citizens?
Should the church be separated from the state?
Does freedom of religion positively or negatively affect societies?

Parenting & Family

Is it better to have children at a younger or older age?
Is it better for children to go to daycare or stay home with their parents?
Does birth order affect personality?
Should parents or the school system teach their kids about sex?
Are family traditions important?
Should parents smoke or drink around young children?
Should “spanking” children be illegal?
Should parents use swear words in front of their children?
Should parents allow their children to play violent video games?

Entertainment

Should all actors be paid the same regardless of gender or ethnicity?
Should all award shows be based on popular vote?
Who should be responsible for paying taxes on prize money, the game show staff or the contestants?
Should movies and television shows have ethnicity and gender quotas?
Should newspapers and magazines move to a completely online format?
Should streaming services like Netflix and Hulu be free for students?
Is the movie rating system still effective?
Should celebrities have more privacy rights?

Arts & Humanities

Are libraries becoming obsolete?
Should all schools have mandatory art or music courses in their curriculum?
Should offensive language be censored from classic literary works?
Is it ethical for museums to keep indigenous artifacts?
Should digital designs be considered an art form?
Should abstract art be considered an art form?
Is music therapy effective?
Should tattoos be regarded as “professional dress” for work?
Should schools place greater emphasis on the arts programs?
Should euthanasia be allowed in hospitals and other clinical settings?
Should the government support and implement universal healthcare?
Would obesity rates lower if the government intervened to make healthy foods more affordable?
Should teenagers be given access to birth control pills without parental consent?
Should food allergies be considered a disease?
Should health insurance cover homeopathic medicine?
Is using painkillers healthy?
Should genetically modified foods be banned?
Should there be a tax on unhealthy foods?
Should tobacco products be banned from the country?
Should the birth control pill be free for everyone?

If you need more help brainstorming topics, especially those that are personalized to your interests, you can use CollegeVine’s free AI tutor, Ivy . Ivy can help you come up with original persuasive speech ideas, and she can also help with the rest of your homework, from math to languages.

Do Your Research

A great persuasive speech is supported with plenty of well-researched facts and evidence. So before you begin the writing process, research both sides of the topic you’re presenting in-depth to gain a well-rounded perspective of the topic.

Understand Your Audience

It’s critical to understand your audience to deliver a great persuasive speech. After all, you are trying to convince them that your viewpoint is correct. Before writing your speech, consider the facts and information that your audience may already know, and think about the beliefs and concerns they may have about your topic. Then, address these concerns in your speech, and be mindful to include fresh, new information.

Have Someone Read Your Speech

Once you have finished writing your speech, have someone read it to check for areas of strength and improvement. You can use CollegeVine’s free essay review tool to get feedback on your speech from a peer!

Practice Makes Perfect

After completing your final draft, the key to success is to practice. Present your speech out loud in front of a mirror, your family, friends, and basically, anyone who will listen. Not only will the feedback of others help you to make your speech better, but you’ll become more confident in your presentation skills and may even be able to commit your speech to memory.

Hopefully, these ideas have inspired you to write a powerful, unique persuasive speech. With the perfect topic, plenty of practice, and a boost of self-confidence, we know you’ll impress your audience with a remarkable speech!

10-minute demonstration speech topics

100 + short 3-10 minute how to speech ideas

By: Susan Dugdale | Last modified: 02-17-2023

If you've been asked to put together a 10 minute, or less, demonstration speech for your speech class, look these 'how-to' ideas over. They're perfect for preparing short show and tell presentations to teach a new task succinctly and quickly.

Use the quick links below to get around the page easily. The topics are arranged in four batches. Begin with 'Why demonstrate something simple and ordinary?'. It could save you a lot of time!

What's on this page

Why demonstrate something simple and ordinary.

25 10-minute demonstration speech topics

25 ideas for short how-to speeches

26 topics for show-and-tell speeches.

32 demonstrative topics for 3 to 10-minute speeches

How plan and prepare your demonstration speech

Get an adaptable printable demonstrative speech outline

25 3 to 10-minute demonstration speech topics

Once you’ve got your topic be sure to collect a printable demonstration speech outline to help you prepare your speech. You’ll find the link for that at the foot of the page. The outline will help you efficiently plan, organize and deliver a well-structured speech.

Now here's the first batch of the 100, and more, topics.

Image: 6 vintage porcelain teacups. Text: 10-minute demonstration speech topics - How to make the most perfect cup of tea.

How to set up a safe password
How to avoid ID theft
How to use Google docs well
How to set up Google analytics on a website quickly
How to create a simple presentation using Microsoft Powerpoint or Apple Keynote
How to back up your important files
How to set up a wifi connection
How to report online bullying
How to fill out online forms well
How to clear cookies off your computer
How to identify and report spam
How to set up a Spotify account
How to use online banking
How to use a credit card responsibly
How to use online grocery shopping to save
How to defend yourself against a random personal physical attack
How to pack a travel bag efficiently
How to help someone who is choking
How to lift heavy objects without damaging yourself
How to make a perfect cup of tea
How to shop for groceries efficiently in a supermarket
How to use a dryer to make your own dried fruit
How to can vegetables safely
How to freeze excess produce
How to make perfect fruit jam

Image: squeezed tube of toothpaste and toothpaste on brush. Text: 10-minute demonstration speech topics - How to clean your teeth properly.

How to chop vegetables safely and quickly
How to carve a chicken, turkey...
How to store raw chicken in the fridge safely
How to prepare a simple healthy meal from basic ingredients
How to plan an affordable weekly dinner menu
How to iron a shirt
How to tie a neck tie
How to sort laundry, use a washing machine and dry your clothes
How to hand wash delicate fabrics
How to use a knife and fork correctly
How to use a pair of chop sticks properly
How to know what cutlery to use when you’re at a formal dinner party
How to plait long hair
How to brush a long-haired dog or cat well
How to brush your teeth correctly
How to do a press up correctly
How to choose a haircut to suit your face shape
How to a jacket to suit your body shape
How to dress well on a limited budget
How to make a simple healthy dessert
How to ice a cake simply and effectively
How to upcycle a tee shirt
How to mend a fallen hem
How to sew on a button
How to make a bookcase from recycled materials

Image: 3 pots of basil Text: 10-minute demonstration speech topics - How to grow fresh kitchen herbs on your window sill

How make a simple personal budget
How to grow kitchen herbs in a window box
How to escape from a sinking car
How to use a blanket to move heavy objects
How to sharpen a knife
How use a thermometer correctly
How to use a compass
How read a simple topographical map
How to use a portable gas stove safely out of doors
How to put out a stove top fire
How to change a light bulb
How to clear a blocked sink
How to clean a bathroom well
How to make a bed
How to use the local public transport system
How to hold a baby properly
How to change a baby’s diaper
How to dress a baby
How to dress a wound
How to make an emergency call
How to administer first aid for burns
How to treat hypothermia
How to handle frostbite
How to handle someone having a seizure
How to use CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation)
How to shine a pair of shoes

32 demonstrative topics for 10-minute speeches

Image: drawing of a very cute cat. Text: 10-minute demonstration speech topics - How to give a cat medicine

How to book a taxicab
How to arrange flowers in a vase
How to sow flower or vegetable seeds
How to re-pot an indoor plant
How to take a cutting from a plant
How to prune a rose
How to dry or press flowers
How to forage for edible plants
How to set a mouse trap
How to make good lecture notes
How to set a meeting agenda
How to run a meeting efficiently
How to read body language – what shows a person is unsure, shy, angry, confident...
How to effectively and easily join a conversation between people you don’t know at a gathering
How to make a personalized greeting card – birthday, wedding, anniversary, Christmas...
How to make paper flowers
How to make touchstones for children
How to make a personalized birthday crown
How to make colorful party bunting
How to make a yarn ball
How to make finger puppets
How to felt wool balls for a garland
How to decoupage a box, tray...
How to make a pasta necklace
How to make personalized pencil and pen holders from tin cans
How to mend a tear in a favorite piece of clothing
How to organize your wardrobe, kitchen counter, pantry...
How to give medicine to a cat or a dog safely
How to see a situation from another person’s point of view
How to encourage and practice creative thinking
How to make a friendship bracelet
How to make a family pinboard

To be really effective you'll want to plan and prepare your 'how-to' speech thoroughly - even if you know the subject inside out!

Demonstration speeches that haven't been thought through and practiced carefully have a nasty habit of suddenly sliding sideways super-fast. Then what you want to happen and what actually does are miles apart - two quite different things.

To avoid that read planning, preparation & delivery of your demonstration speech .

Get the printable demonstration speech outline

Click the link to access to printable demonstration speech outline . (It goes to the same page on planning and preparation linked to above. While you are there be sure to read the FAQs, especially the information about cue cards. If you haven't given a demonstration speech before you'll find it useful.)

Image: Cartoon figures - Happy family - father and son, mother and daughter. Text: Share, show and tell about soft skills. They're vital for healthy relationships.

If you've not found the how-to speech idea you want here, here's the link to access four more pages of demonstration speech topics . Collectively, that's 100s of suggestions! They include soft skills: the skills we need to communicate well with each other.

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How to Select a Topic for a Speech

Last Updated: October 5, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Gale McCreary . Gale McCreary is the Founder and Chief Coordinator of SpeechStory, a nonprofit organization focused on improving communication skills in youth. She was previously a Silicon Valley CEO and President of a Toastmasters International chapter. She has been recognized as Santa Barbara Entrepreneurial Woman of the Year and received Congressional recognition for providing a Family-Friendly work environment. She has a BS in Biology from Stanford University. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 250,679 times.

Selecting a topic for a speech can be overwhelming. You may feel that you have an infinite amount of topics to choose from, but there are a few strategies that can help narrow down your choices. To select the perfect topic for a speech, you have to consider your knowledge and interests as well as your audience and purpose. If you want to know how to select a topic for a speech that will give you a standing ovation, just follow these steps.

Consider Your Objectives

If the occasion is solemn, such as a funeral or memorial service, then your topic should be serious and relevant to the occasion.
If the occasion is fun, such as a toast at a bachelor party, then it's time to bring out the fun anecdotes and stories and to make people laugh -- not to share your passion for coin collecting.
If the occasion is celebratory, like a wedding, then you need to provide some light-hearted humor as well as some serious and sentimental points.
If the occasion is professional, then you need to stick to a professional topic, such as website design, and not focus on your personal experiences.

To inform. To inform your audience, you'll need to provide relevant facts and details about a subject that reveals information that allows your audience to see an ordinary subject in a more complicated light, or to learn about a completely foreign subject.
To persuade. To persuade your audience, you'll need to use rhetorical techniques, metaphors, and convincing evidence from experts to show them that they should do something, whether it's to elect you for office, recycle more, or take the time to volunteer in their communities.
To entertain. To entertain your audience, you'll need to draw on personal or anecdotal examples, tell funny stories, show off your wit, and make your audience crack up, even if you're communicating an underlying serious message.
To celebrate. If you're celebrating a specific person or event, you'll need to show your audience what makes that person or thing so special, and to garner enthusiasm for your subject.

Don't pick anything so complicated that it would be impossible to inform your audience. If you pick something so complex that it can't be explained in a short amount of time or without pages of charts or diagrams, then you will lose your audience.
Don't pick something that's so simple that your audience could understand it in just a minute or two. If your topic is so basic that you'll only be repeating yourself after you've said just a few sentences, then you'll lose your audience's interests as well. You want to keep your audience members on their toes, not knowing what to expect next.
Don't pick anything that's too controversial. Unless you're at a convention for controversial speeches, it's best to avoid topics that are too controversial, like abortion or gun control. Of course, if your goal is to persuade your audience to agree with one side of these issues, then you should go ahead with your speech, but know that you may lose many people before you begin.
Don't pick anything that doesn't fit the mood of the audience. If it's a celebratory occasion, don't give a dry speech about irrigation; if it's a professional occasion, don't give an emotional speech about how much you love your mother.

Consider Your Audience

Step 1 Consider the knowledge of your audience.

If you're speaking to a group that is knowledgeable about a topic, then you don't have to waste their time by discussing the most basic aspects of that topic.

Step 2 Consider the level of education of your audience.

You don't want to lose your audience by speaking about something that is completely over their heads, or by delivering content in such a basic way that it sounds condescending.

Step 3 Consider the needs and interests of your audience.

Imagine yourself as one of the audience members. If they're teenagers, pretend you're a teenager. Try seeing your topic choice from their perspective. If it bores or overwhelms you, then it won't be the right choice.

Step 4 Consider the demographics of your audience.

If there are many more males than females in your audience, for example, then it may be best to pick a gender neutral or male-geared topic.
Knowing the race of your audience can help pick a topic. If you have a diverse audience, then something about race relations or diversity can interest your audience, but if you're talking about diversity, interracial marriage, or discrimination against one specific race of people that is not in the audience to an audience that is predominantly of one race, then your discussion may fall flat.
You should also consider where your audience is from. A certain topic may be more interesting to a person from California than a person from Idaho and vice versa.

Step 5 Consider the audience's relationship to you.

Consider Your Interests and Knowledge

Step 1 Pick a topic that you're passionate about.

If you only have a limited amount of options and can't pick anything you're truly passionate about, you should at least pick something that you like or are interested in to make it easier and more enjoyable for you to write and deliver the speech.

Step 2 Pick a topic that you're knowledgeable about.

You don't have to know every single thing about a topic to deliver a great speech. You can pick something that you're knowledgeable about, and can supplement that job with some careful research.
If you're picking a subject you're knowledgeable about but know you'll need to research further, make sure the topic is easy to research. If you pick something fairly obscure, then it may be difficult to find more information about it.

Step 3 Pick something that relates to your interests.

You may find a large overlap between the things you're interested in and the things you know.

Read through popular national and local papers, listen to the radio, and watch the news to see what people are talking about and how the public is reacting to these events.
You can also pick something that is particularly timely for your community. If there has been controversy over a new policy regarding public schools in your neighborhood, you could use it as an occasion for a speech.
You can pick something that is timely for your audience. If you're addressing high school seniors, you can talk about the next stage of life after graduation, and can bring in any relevant current information from the news.

Step 5 Choose something that relates to your personal experience.

Remember that you can add personal information to a topic that doesn't feel so personal; you can discuss an aspect of your career, for example, while throwing in a personal anecdote.

Step 6 Pick a topic that you have the ability to speak about.

Whatever the topic, you should be able to connect with your audience through the speech. At the end or even during the speech, a little light bulb should go off in your audience's heads, and they should reach a new understanding of your topic. If you don't have the ability to truly connect with your audience about this topic, then pick another one.

Community Q&A

Another helpful sources are the how-to guides and lists of ideas of Speech Topics Help. Thanks Helpful 8 Not Helpful 2
A great resource for public speaking is Toastmasters International. There are clubs all over the world and for very little money you can develop outstanding speaking skills in a helpful, friendly atmosphere. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

↑ https://open.lib.umn.edu/publicspeaking/chapter/18-2-special-occasion-speeches/
↑ https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-publicspeaking/chapter/finding-the-purpose-and-central-idea-of-your-speech/
↑ https://onlinespeechwriting.com/informative-speech-what-topics-to-avoid.html
↑ https://www.comm.pitt.edu/oral-comm-lab/audience-analysis
↑ https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-publicspeaking/chapter/choosing-a-topic/
↑ https://open.lib.umn.edu/communication/chapter/9-1-selecting-and-narrowing-a-topic/

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Meaning of light bulb in English

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Consider low energy light bulbs and solar power .
The higher the wattage of the light bulb , the hotter the light bulb will be.
The lightbulb in the bathroom attracts some fearsome insects .
candlestick
halogen lamp
hurricane lamp
pillar candle
appreciation for something
apprehensible
apprehension
keep someone up
know a hawk from a handsaw idiom
know the score idiom
know/see where someone is coming from idiom
to get a handle on something idiom
to have a handle on something idiom
tumble to something
uncomprehending
understanding
Before the invention of the light bulb, you had to watch plays during the day when it was light outside.
Before the light bulb, people did not do much at night because it was dark.
Changing the light bulbs in your room can help you sleep.
Finally, in 1879, Thomas Edison invented a safe and easy way to use the electric light bulb.
If you look at a picture of our planet from space at night, you can see how the light bulb changed life on Earth.
Laser light does not spread out like natural light or light from a light bulb.
People used candles for light at night until the light bulb was invented.
Try changing the light bulbs in your bedroom.

light bulb | American Dictionary

Examples of light bulb, translations of light bulb.

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Eavesdropping tech reverse-engineers speech based on light bulb vibrations

The next James Bond movie may not be out until later this year, but thanks to researchers from Ben Gurion University and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel you can get your high-tech spy fix today — by checking out their new proof-of-concept eavesdropping demonstration. In a project called Lamphone, they have shown how it’s possible to listen to what is being said in a room even without physically accessing the space or using any traditional recording implements. How? By checking out the minute vibrations in a light bulb resulting from speech in the immediate vicinity.

“We [demonstrated] that speech can be recovered from a hanging bulb in real-time by passively analyzing its vibrations via electro-optical sensor,” Ben Nassi, one of the researchers on the Lamphone project, told Digital Trends.

In their demonstration, the researchers set out to record the audio in a third-floor office, using a single 12-watt LED bulb hanging from the ceiling. The eavesdropper was positioned on a pedestrian bridge, 25 meters (82 feet) from the target. The system requires an electro-optical sensor, telescope, and computer with audio processing software. The researchers developed a special algorithm that is able to reverse-engineer audio from monitoring the way a hanging lightbulb (currently the lightbulb must be hanging for it to work) moves as sound waves from speech bounce around a room.

While the audio fidelity of the re-created sound isn’t perfect, it’s certainly good enough that it could clue an eavesdropper in on what is happening. “We were able to recover speech that was accurately transcribed by Google’s Speech to Text API,” the researchers write on an accompanying project webpage . “We were also able to recover singing that was recognized by Shazam.”

The researchers claim that the range that sound could be recovered from may be extended with the right equipment, such as a larger telescope. In the future, the researchers plan to look at whether it is possible to analyze sound from additional light sources, such as decorative LED flowers.

A paper describing the work, titled “Lamphone: Real-Time Passive Sound Recovery from Light Bulb Vibrations,” is available to read online .

During the State of Unreal keynote held at GDC 2024, Unreal Engine revealed some interesting new developments that are coming in the next update of its graphics engine. Developers will now be able to create authentic, highly dense environments and character details in real time in a way that just doesn't seem to have been possible in the past. The company demoed these new capabilities during an early preview of Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, and it's really quite impressive.

The demo shows us what UE can do now, all directly transmitted with the help of a live-in editor and a virtual camera. Kim Liberi, chief technology officer of Epic Games, and Amy Henning from Skydance Media introduced the audience to a bridge environment set in 1943. Initially, the scene was highly detailed but then it was broken down to its bare bones to visualize just how much is being added in real-time by the editor.

Microsoft has taken the wraps off some new Surface devices today. Though the latest Surface Pro 10 for Buisness and Surface Laptop 6 for Buisness are only for commercial users, the new products preview consumer versions that are expected to be coming later this year.

While not majorly redesigned, the devices pack a promising jump in performance under the hood thanks to the Intel Core Ultra CPU, as well as some features enterprise users will surely appreciate. AI is also a big focus in the form of Copilot. Surface Laptop 6 for Business

Nvidia just unveiled its new generative AI model, dubbed Latte3D, during GTC 2024. Latte3D appears to be ChatGPT on extreme steroids. I's a text-to-3D model that accepts simple, short text prompts and turns them into 3D objects and animals within a second. Much faster than its older counterparts, Latte3D works like a virtual 3D printe that could come in handy for creators across many industries.

Latte3D was made to simplify the creation of 3D models for many types of creators, such as those working on video games, design projects, marketing, or even machine learning and training for robotics. In Nvidia's demo of the model, it appears super simple to use. Following a quick text prompt, the AI generates a 3D model and shortly after finishes it off with much more detail. While the end result is nowhere near as lifelike as OpenAI's Sora, it's not meant to be -- this is a way to speed up creating assets instead of having to build them from the ground up.

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