Fun with a Plasma Globe

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080808.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mass_eject_in_ultraviolet_light.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_lamp

Category:

Education

Tags:

• science
• physics
• astronomy
• plasma

[marneedear]

AWESOME

Have you gotten the book The Electric Sky yet?

[nine9s]

Nope.  On my list...

[TheLogicJunkie]

I wonder if sunspots might work the same way.

[nine9s]

Sunspots are caused by different parts of the sun rotating at different speeds (faster at the equator than at the poles, since the sun is not solid), which twists up the magnetic fields. So if there are similarities between sunspots and the electrode's dark spots, they're caused by different things. I'm inclined to think that in the globe it's just a result of the variation in the wire ball's density, but that's pure speculation on my part.

[randommezos]

is your plasma globe able to be set to frequencys?

[SuperFinGuy]

Pretty cool, makes you wonder how the electrical energy goes through insulators like the glass or plastic. High frequency baby! With enough voltage and frequency you can make an air plasma globe. The gas type just depends on how much voltage/frequency you can provide. In this case probably it uses an easily ionzable gas such as an inert one (argon for example).

[BEG4MPG]

bow down to tesla

and touch me bum

[TheLogicJunkie]

Actually, I was thinking in terms of sunspots and light spots on the globe. But thanks for the explanation of sunspots.

[nine9s]

Rotfl! Once when I tried to fake getting sick, I found out that tap water was hot enough to break glass. :-P

[Rorshak1313]

Ooohh. Pretty colors!

[Beethovens7th]

Haha, and if you put a thermometer inside the mercury will flash like lightning and then when you pull it out the mercury will be split into pieces. That's what I discovered when I tried faking sick to not go to school when I was 10.