Plasma

Since a LOT of you have no clue on the true definition of plasma, prepare for a little science lesson :).

Plasma, the 4th state of matter, is what the sun is composed of. It is basically a higher form of gas, in which the kinetic energy of the atoms (temperature hehe) is so high that the electrons begin to rip off of them. This creates charged atoms called ions while stray electrons are floating around. Plasma happens when over half of the atoms in the gas are ions. Since electrons are moving around quickly, it creates magnetic forces as well, and it can be influenced by other magnetic forces.

And fire is not plasma, in case you were wondering. Just like the sun is not made of fire. When you are watching fire you are just seeing hot gas that releases some of its energy in the form of light.

hope that wasn't too nerdy for ya... :)


And window-washer, wtf are you talking about? "They move backwards in time". Uh, no. Oh and please don't speak for me. I have nothing against deadnail. He's a good guy and actually posts intelligent things. He doesn't post mindless drunken immature posts that have minimal sense to them.

Jeez! Psyonisis ! You are good at science , aren't You

I learned a little about ions last year when i was in 8th grade, maybe you can even teach me some more about chemistry my next sophomore year. Cuz i dont remember anymore, i gotta look up the book again to look for the info

er.....right. Positrons or anti electrons DO move backwards in time and unless you disagree with Steven Hawking about quantum physics I suggest you shut the fuck up.
The sun is NOT made of plasma dispite what you think, although some stars are big enough and hot enough to maintain plasma reactions within their cores, and the word you are looking for is flux-plasma happens when the ions of an element are in flux. Oh, and of course the sun isn't made of fire dunce since fire isn't a physical entity. Your post wasn't too nerdy so don't worry- it was just plain WRONG

Dude, I learned all of that back in 9th grade!

the-widow-maker said:

er.....right. Positrons or anti electrons DO move backwards in time and unless you disagree with Steven Hawking about quantum physics I suggest you shut the fuck up.
The sun is NOT made of plasma dispite what you think, although some stars are big enough and hot enough to maintain plasma reactions within their cores, and the word you are looking for is flux-plasma happens when the ions of an element are in flux. Oh, and of course the sun isn't made of fire dunce since fire isn't a physical entity. Your post wasn't too nerdy so don't worry- it was just plain WRONG

Positrons are antielectrons, i.e. electrons with a positive charge. They still have a postive mass, and therefore they move forward in time just like everything else, except for the mythical tachyons which may or may not exist.

The sun is in fact made of plasma... plasma is when a hot gas has had the electrons stripped off the atoms and all the particles are bouncing around freely. Creating a plasma isn't that hard, especially inside the sun which is pretty damned hot. You can have different stages of plasma depending on if all the electrons have been ripped off the atoms, or just some.

"Plasma reactions" doesn't make any sense... if you're talking about nuclear fusion, ALL stars maintain nuclear fusion in their cores except for ultra-cold brown dwarves which glow due to gravitational collapse. Only those stars which are big and hot enough can intiate a fusion process called the triple-alpha reaction, where three helium nuclei are smashed together to form carbon. This requires a temperature of something like 100 million degrees to work.

Oh, and I'm a second-year astrophysics major, so I do have some idea of what I'm talking about :P

I know positrons are anti electrons, I was only giving another term for them, and they DO travel backwards in time, I suggest you read 'Alice in quantum land' or 'A brief history of time' if you don't believe me. The sun is only at plasma state in the very centre, and so is not 'made' of plasma at all.

Plasma reactions is a mistake on my part-I was refering to the heat required to sustain a plasma state.

You can't create 'a' plasma Linguica although being an astro whatever you probably knew that, unfortunately this rather pathetic title is lost on me since (thank god) I am not American and never intend to go to your country.

Since when did everybody turn into a scientist?

the-widow-maker said:

I know positrons are anti electrons, I was only giving another term for them, and they DO travel backwards in time, I suggest you read 'Alice in quantum land' or 'A brief history of time' if you don't believe me. The sun is only at plasma state in the very centre, and so is not 'made' of plasma at all.

Plasma reactions is a mistake on my part-I was refering to the heat required to sustain a plasma state.

You can't create 'a' plasma Linguica although being an astro whatever you probably knew that, unfortunately this rather pathetic title is lost on me since (thank god) I am not American and never intend to go to your country.

Jesus Christ, you are such a moron. Plasma can be created very easily. And YES stars are made of plasma! PLASMA! And wtf "fire is not an entity". You seem to be just pulling this stuff outta your ass. And judging by the way you talk in your posts, you don't seem very intelligen in the first place.

intelligen????? thats a new one, oh and yes I am-I belong to mensa and my I.Q is 2 points of genius level.

I'm not pulling this stuff outta my ass at all, its in books by people like Hawking. Also I don't think Linguica needs a little nerdy bitch like you to argue for him.

When you say stuff like that it makes me see you as an even bigger moron. Saying stuff like "2 points above genius level" is not something a person with a genius I.Q. would say. So guessing by this, 'genius' level is 0, and you have 2.

the-widow-maker said:

er.....right. Positrons or anti electrons DO move backwards in time and unless you disagree with Steven Hawking about quantum physics I suggest you shut the fuck up.
The sun is NOT made of plasma dispite what you think, although some stars are big enough and hot enough to maintain plasma reactions within their cores, and the word you are looking for is flux-plasma happens when the ions of an element are in flux. Oh, and of course the sun isn't made of fire dunce since fire isn't a physical entity. Your post wasn't too nerdy so don't worry- it was just plain WRONG

You're the moron, dumbass. Seriously, your mind is too full of backward time-traveling, anti-intuitive, Back-To-The-Future-Doc-Brown science. Why don't you come back to the real world and read a simple high school physics book? Don't evercomplicate things. You talk about backward time-travel as if it's so obvious and unsurprising to you. Unless you ARE Stephen Hawking, don't argue your physics with such arrogance. A lot of the stuff you say is totally wrong. I've taken a good deal of physics courses (got a 5 on the AP Physics test) and know a good deal about basic phenomenon, including a definition of plasma.
So basically, I suggest that YOU shut the fuck up. :)

Psyonisis said:

When you say stuff like that it makes me see you as an even bigger moron. Saying stuff like "2 points above genius level" is not something a person with a genius I.Q. would say. So guessing by this, 'genius' level is 0, and you have 2.

Not really. I don't expect you to give a shit, nor do I care what you think I was just trying to prove a point-oh and genius level is 150 not 0. Obviously trying to justify your sub-standard intelligence by insulting clever people aren't you?

Wow. I have a 164. Pretty good, huh?

This squabbling is getting pathetic. Seems as how all this discussion about plasma seemed to come about after my really long-winded post, let's just drop the subject since we can't seem to agree on any one explanation. All I attempted to do with my post was provide a hypothesis for how a plasma rifle would operate and show how it could be done with today's technology. If you don't know what I'm talking about, refer to the post that reads, "Real-life Plasma Rifles."

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Yes, plasma is the 4th state of matter.

A substance is technicially defined as "plasma" if it is currently in gaseous state and more than 50% of it's atoms are fully ionized (ie, floating around w/o electrons or floating around with too many electrons) (oops, jsut saw that there, didnt know if you said it already).

It is only effected by magnetic forces because it contains so much electricity its like a giant floating electromagnet.

Fire is just basicially an exo-thermic chemical reaction. A chemical reaction that gives off heat and light. And you cannot see all types of fire either, hydrogen fire burning in the air is invisible - no blue flame or nothing, the only clue to it's existance would be the waves of heat distortion it gives off.

It depends which part of the sun you are talking aobut that would be made of plasma. The core of the sun certainly is plasma - of a nature about 30 million degrees F. But as far as the exterior goes, its cool enough to be demoted to the phrase "hot gases" rather than "plasma" because the exterior is only about 10000 degrees F.

And it wasn't too nerdy for me, I learned this stuff way back in my grade school days - by watching the discovery and TLC channels while every one else in my class had friends.