hmm jw, how do incandescents work? an do they even need a ballast? hmm, and i know they use toungsten, but are they a gas or is it a metal? i want to know lol.

Here's how it work. No it won't need a ballast. It's spelled tungsten and it's a metal. It's where the glow and heat comes from.

Here's how it work. No it won't need a ballast. It's spelled tungsten and it's a metal. It's where the glow and heat comes from.

To be more accurate, unless there are no special supply requirement (so 90% applications), they do not need ballast. The "special supply requirement" might be different voltage (e.g. 12V halogens in the bathroom wet area) - then the "ballast" is a transformer converting 230V (or 120V) to required voltage, dimming - then the dimmer is the "ballast", or when the supply accuracy has tight tolerance specifications (for some special photo lamps) - then the stabilizing unit is the "ballast".

I think the picture in that website would be more accurate for gas discharge lamps, which emit spectrum with resonance lines associated with the energies of the falling electrons.

On the other hand, incandescent sources emit light based on the Blackbody radiation and the spectrum is continuous.