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Air Lights Plasma Air Purifiers
WHAT IS A PLASMA?
We are all familiar with the three states of matter in our everyday
surroundings: solid, liquid and gas; but we may be surprised to find estimates
that 99% of the matter in the Universe consists of a fourth state of matter
- PLASMA. Plasma is the most common state of matter in the Universe.
When sufficient energy is applied to a solid it becomes a liquid (ice
becomes water). When enough energy is applied to a liquid it becomes a
gas.(water becomes steam)
What happens when a gas gets heated?
"When a gas is heated by many thousands of degrees, the individual atoms
collide with enough violence to knock electrons free, resulting in a
collection of positively charged ions and free, negatively charged electrons.
The gas is said to be ionized, and when a sizable number of the atoms become
ionized, the gas is called a PLASMA.
A plasma can also be formed by applying other forms of energy to a
gas: ...... ultraviolet rays, for example..... Plasma exists in and around
the stars, including the sun, and throughout interstellar space. .....Plasmas
possess remarkable properties not found in ordinary solids, liquids, and
gases...... the free electrons are extremely mobile.
"Plasma and Plasma Physics."
Britannica Encyclopedia. 2003
Encyclopędia Britannica Premium Service.
04 Jul, 2003
http://www.britannica.com/ebi/article?eu=298527
In 1928, Langmuir and Tonks, while investigating electric discharges at
the General Electric Research Laboratory, introduced the term "plasma" to
described the ionized gas.
"The plasmas are electrically charged gases, or "ionized" gases, that
are found in nature as well as in numerous devices. In addition to surrounding
you in the universe, plasmas play key roles in bringing you sunlight outdoors
during the daytime, street light at night, fluorescent light in your
offices, computer chips in your computers, treated and coated surfaces
of more important objects in your life than you might imagine (including
hardened artificial joints you might have in your body and high
temperature turbine blade coatings for the jets you fly in), flat panel
displays for your TV, gas lasers, the welded joints that keep buildings
from falling apart, and radio transmission around the world. Among the
important applications expected in the future are the production of electrical
energy from nuclear fusion, environmental cleanup....."
Coalition for Plasma Science,
http://www.plasmacoalition.org/
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