Plasmas

1. Plasmas By: Adam Dymit

2. What You Need To Know • 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 astrophysicalplasmas. • 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.

3. 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.

4. 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. Fuel Molecule Oxygen Molecule 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.

5. 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 Atom Light Photon The atoms energy level is now increased. The atom returns to a normal energy level of energy and releases a light photon.

6. 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 Light Photon Atoms Mercury

7. 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

8. Work Cited • 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.cfmhttp://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.htmhttp://electronics.howstuffworks.com/plasma-display.htm