Plasma

PLASMAThe Fourth State of Matter

States of MatterStarts from next page

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By Fawad Mueen Arbi3

States of Matter

• Major states of Matter are Solid, Liquid and Gas. Solid is the most abundant state of matter around us (on Earth)

• The 4th one is Plasma. It is formed by providing heat to the gas.

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Other States of Matter

• There are also 5th and 6th states of matter i.e. “Bose-Einstein condensate” and “Fermi-gas”.

• There are several other very exotic and unusual forms of matter that we don't encounter in daily life. A Bose-Einstein condensate can only form at temperature near absolute zero, and was first created in a lab in 1995. Degenerate matter can come into being under incredibly high pressure inside white dwarf and neutron stars. There are other very strange, very rare forms of matter as well.

Plasma as The 4th State of MatterStarts from next page

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By Fawad Mueen Arbi6

What is Plasma?

• Plasma is considered 4th State of Matter despite solids, liquids and gases. It is one of the fundamental states of matter. Technically, it is an ionized gas consisting of positive ions and free electrons in proportions resulting in more or less no overall electric charge, typically at low pressures (as in the upper atmosphere and in fluorescent lamps) or at very high temperatures (as in stars and nuclear fusion reactors).

• Plasma should be called 1st state of matter because it is what all the states arise from.

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Why is Plasma considered the 4th State of Matter

• The characteristics of plasmas are significantly different from those of ordinary neutral gases so that plasmas are considered a distinct "fourth state of matter." For example, because plasmas are made up of electrically charged particles, they are strongly influenced by electric and magnetic fields while neutral gases are not.

• It’s behavior doesn’t resemble with any other State of Matter. It is significantly unique.

• It is an interesting fact that most of the material in the visible Universe (The whole Universe, as much as 99.9% according to some estimates, is in the Plasma State.

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• The existence of PLASMA was first discovered by Sir William Crookes in 1879 using an assembly that is today known as a “Crookes tube”, an experimental electrical discharge tube in which air is ionized by the application of a high voltage through a voltage coil.

• A Crookes tube is an early experimental electrical discharged tube, with partial vacuum, invented by English physicist William Crookes (on the left side) and others around 1869-1875, in which cathode rays, streams of electrons, were discovered.

Discovery of Plasma

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Crookes Tube (Cathode Tube)

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Formation of Plasma

• When more heat is provided to atoms or molecules, they may be ionized. An electron may gain enough energy to escape its atom. After the escape of electron, atoms become ions. In sufficiently heated gas, ionization happens many times, creating clouds of free electrons and ions.

• This ionized gas mixture consisting of ions, electrons and neutral atoms is called PLASMA

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Types of Plasma

• There are two major types of Plasma i.e.

1. Natural Plasma Natural Plasma only exist at very high temperature or low temperature vacuum. It do not react rapidly but it is extremely hot (over 20,000 oC). There energy is so high that it vaporizes everything they touch.

2. Artificial Plasma Artificial Plasma can be created by ionization of a gas , as in neon signs. Plasma at low temperature is hard to maintain because outside a vacuum, low temperature plasma reacts rapidly with any molecule it encounters. This aspect makes this material, both very useful and hard to use.

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Properties of Plasma

• Although Plasma includes ions, electrons and neutral atoms, it is macroscopically neutral as a whole because electrons and ions are equally balanced.

• A Plasma must have sufficient number of charged particles as a whole, it exhibits a collective response to electrical and magnetic field. The motion of particles in the Plasma generate fields and electric currents from within Plasma Density.

• This complex behavior makes Plasma Unique.

Applications of Plasma

• Neon Signs are also made of Plasma.

• The glowing "gas" in a fluorescent bulb is Plasma.

• Plasma Globes are also used to make Plasma in Labs

• Plasma Televisions

Applications of Plasma

• Plasma drive lasers and particle accelerators.

• It’s also used for making semi-conductors.

• Plasma lights up our homes, make our computers and electronic equipment

Interesting Facts about PlasmaListed from next page.

By Fawad Mueen Arbi16

Space is not empty vacuum. It is actually filled with Plasma. That conducts our electromagnetic wave signals. Our Universe is 99.9%

Plasma.

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Even our Sun exists in 99.85% Plasma State. The Sun is 1.5 million kilometer ball of Plasma, heated by Nuclear Fusion.

By Fawad Mueen Arbi18

It’s quite surprising, plasma wasn’t identified until the Twenties (2000-2014). That’s because electrons weren’t discovered until the late 19th century, and without an understanding of subatomic charged particles, you can’t understand how plasma works.

By Fawad Mueen Arbi19

The tip of a welder’s torch glows like the Sun and fires out a concentrated blast of heat in excess of 3,000 degrees Celsius. Its UV rays are so harmful that welders wear dark face plates to protect them from ‘arc eye’, a painful burning of the cornea. The source of the intense glow is an ionized arc of gas called Plasma.

By Fawad Mueen Arbi20

Water can’t be converted into Plasma. It can only exist as Solid, Liquid or Gas. For water to become a plasma, the individual hydrogen and oxygen atoms would need to be broken apart and ionized separately. And if the molecular structure is broken apart, then water is no longer water.