Re: Plasma

• To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
• Subject: Re: Plasma
• From: "Bryan L. Kaufman MD, MS" <bryan-at-apexrad-dot-com> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)
• Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2000 12:57:49 -0700
• Approved: twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net
• Delivered-To: fixup-tesla-at-pupman-dot-com-at-fixme

>> What is the temp of the plasma in the spark gap? In the discharge?
> 
> Very hot, thousands of centigrade is not unusual.
>
>> Fire/plasma conducts, why?
>
> A plasma is a gas that has had more energy pumped into it than will allow
> electrons to stay with their original nuclei. The characteristic glow is
> caused because photons are emitted whenever electrons jump up or down in
> energy levels. Ordinary gases don't conduct significantly, because few if
> any free electrons can move around - they are all bound to nuclei. Plasmas
> do conduct precisely because there *are* lots of free electrons.
>
> Apologies to any trained physicists out there - I know this is a serious
> oversimplification.
Not really, this is actually a very succint description, I would mention
only one insignificant detail, the photons are emitted only on electrons
dropping into lower energy shells. They absorb energy in jumping to higher
shells.

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