http://www.electronicspoint.com/threads/light-bulb-explosion.5631/https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100505083331AAxyOOgLainaus edellisestä:
"I stumbled across the explanation under a Britannica entry for Argon.
Manufacturers put argon in light bulbs as an inert fill gas. Unfortunately
argon has a low breakdown voltage, so if the filament burns out, an arc
will leap across the broken ends. So, manufacturers put some nitrogen
in the argon to raise the breakdown voltage.
But sometimes an arc will strike across the broken filament ends.
When this occurs, the normal "yellow" light bulb color will turn
brilliant blue-white for a moment (until the filament is vaporized
by the arc, and the arc quenches out.
But sometimes the arc continues for too long. Or perhaps the
manufacturers got the gas mixture wrong. The hot arc will cause
the argon pressure in the bulb to skyrocket. The bulb will burst
with a bang.
(A similar thing occurs if you put a bulb in a microwave oven for
a couple of minutes. The hot plasma inside the bulb will vaporise
the filament parts, then cause the bulb to explode via overpressure.)"
H.