Plasmas
By: Adam Dymit
What You Need To Know
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Plasmas are defined as ionized gasses.
Plasmas are believed to be the most common state of matter in the universe. This
is because stars are made of plasma.
There are different types of plasmas such as terrestrial, artificial, and
astrophysical plasmas.
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Two plasmas commonly found on earth are fire and lighting.
Plasmas are made of particles that are broken apart.
Plasmas are one state of matter above gas.
To make a plasma gas particles most get enough energy to ionize the gas.
Lightning and electricity
Does water conduct electricity? The
answer is no and I will tell you
why.
In order for something to conduct
electricity it most contain charged
particles and the particles most be
freely moving. Water doesn’t
contain charged particles.
Sometimes the water will have
minerals in it that do conduct
electricity.
Water without minerals.
Water with minerals.
Fire is one of the worlds natural
plasmas. Do know how a fire is
started? It is more complex than
you may think. For a fire to start
you must have fuel molecules and
oxygen molecules. The kinetic
energies of these molecules causes
them to hit each other but, there
isn’t enough energy to cause an
ignition. Instead of making a fire the
molecules bounce of each other.
When energy, such as a spark or
another fire, is added to the
molecules they hit with enough
force that they ignite when they hit.
Fuel
Molecule
Oxygen
Molecule
Do you know how light is made? Made
by photons known as light photons.
These photons are made by atoms.
Atoms make these photons when
particles hit them. When hit by
particles atoms get excited and
there energy levels increase. The
atom then returns to its original
level of energy and releases the
extra energy in the form of a light
photon. When different atoms are
used in this process the light
photons are different colors.
This atom is
at a normal
level of
energy.
Particle
Light
Atom
Photon
The atoms
energy level
is now
increased.
The atom
returns to a
normal energy
level of energy
and releases
a light photon.
Now that you know what light photons
are you can learn how fluorescent
lights use plasma to make light. A
fluorescent light is made of a glass
bulb containing gas (normally
argon), two wire electrodes, and a
little mercury. When electricity
passes through the electrodes it
turns the gas to a plasma which
allows the electricity particles to
pass to the mercury. When these
particles hit the mercury’s atoms it
excites the atoms and cases them
to make light photons. This process
never uses heat so the light bulbs
don’t create heat.
Wired electrodes
Particle
Mercury
Light
Photon
Atoms
Plasma displays are very similar to
fluorescent lights. In fact plasma
displays are made up of little
fluorescent lights. Plasma displays,
such as plasma screen TVs, are
called plasma displays because
they use plasma to make visual
displays. Plasma displays contain
many small dots called pixels. In
each pixel there are three
fluorescent lights. Each light makes
colored light that is either red, blue,
or green. Together these colors can
make any color on the color
spectrum. If you look close enough
at a plasma display or any digital
display you can see the only colors
they use are red, green, and blue.
One Pixel
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Special thanks to…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_(physics)#Common_plasmas
http://www.scala.com/definition/plasma.html
http://fusedweb.pppl.gov/CPEP/Chart_Pages/5.Plasmas/Lightning.html
http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae61.cfm
http://education.jlab.org/jsat/powerpoint/states_of_matter.ppt#256,1,Slide 1
http://www.fire.org.nz/facts_stats/science/science.htm
http://home.howstuffworks.com/fluorescent-lamp1.htm
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/plasma-display.htm