Ionizing Gases in Microwave Oven

There are four states of matter in the universe today. The three most people are familiar with are liquid, solid, and gas and plasma. For example, water is liquid at room temperature and normal air pressure, turns solid when brought below 32 degrees F (0 C), and turns to a gas when brought above 212 F (100 C).

We don't, however, normally experience the plasma state. You get plasma by further heating a gas until you strip away the electrons (ionizing it). The result is a plasma state of matter.

In theory, if you burn something like wood (toothpicks in my video), then heat the resulting carbon rich gas, you can create plasma. The microwave oven zaps the gas to push it to a plasma state. The stream of releases electrons grounds through the case of the microwave oven and flows through the ground circuit. The resulting glowing gas remnants may be plasma.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Science
• Plasma
• Microwave Oven