Uses
Industrially, electric arcs are used for welding, plasma cutting, for electrical discharge machining, as an arc lamp in movie projectors and followspots in stage lighting. Electric arc furnaces are used to produce steel and other substances. Calcium carbide is made in this way as it requires a large amount of energy to promote an endothermic reaction (at temperatures of 2500 °C).
Low-pressure electric arcs are used for lighting, e.g., fluorescent tubes, mercury and sodium street lamps, and camera flash lamps.
Formation of an intense electric arc, similar to a small-scale arc flash, is the foundation of exploding-bridgewire detonators.
Electric arcs have been studied for electric propulsion of spacecraft.
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