Plasma is the fourth state of matter and is considered distinct from solids, liquids, and gases. Plasma consists of ionized gas made up of positive ions and free electrons. Most of the visible universe exists in the plasma state, including the interior of the Sun which is comprised of 99.85% plasma. Plasma was first discovered in 1879 by William Crookes in his Crookes tube, which allowed the discovery of cathode rays.

1. PLASMA
The Fourth State of Matter

2. States of Matter
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3. 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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4. 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.
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5. Plasma as The 4th State of Matter
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6. 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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7. 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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8. Discovery of Plasma
• 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.
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9. Crookes Tube (Cathode Tube)
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10. 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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11. 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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12. 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.
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13. 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

14. 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

15. Interesting Facts about Plasma
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16. 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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17. Even our Sun exists in 99.85% Plasma State. The Sun is 1.5 million
kilometer ball of Plasma, heated by Nuclear Fusion.
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18. 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.
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19. 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.
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20. 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.
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