07.13.09 UCLA- Flashes emerged from the window of the large plasma device (LAPD). The surface of this machine is hot like an oven. Inside this giant monster lies machinery capable of reaching temperatures of 250 Million degrees Celsius. Now most people would wonder how in the world this machine is capable of reaching such high temperatures when highest melting point of any metals is 3000 Celsius. A rough explanation on the reason this machine isn’t a glowing hot red ball of fire is the mere fat that it pulses at about 1/15000th a second and the whole process takes place in the middle of the machine away from the actual walls. The whole plasma process is never to touch the sides the of the walls.
Now the real question is what is the purpose of exploring temperature? That is the question that never really got answered even during the lectures. So today for this blog I’ll look further into this now that I’ve explained the basics of what a LAPD (large plasma device) is.
When you first think of plasma your probably think of plasma T.V.’s. In plasma T.V.’s a nobel gas is sandwiched between two panels of glass. Then the gas then is charged with a current and turns into plasma which excites the phosphorus which then emits a colour. Florescent lamps also use a plasma based concept. Inside the light bulbs is also a gas and it too emits light. Neon signs also share the same concept. Some other places plasma is used is for Nasa’s heat shields, ozone generators, plasma torch, and their generated in tesla coils. And in these pieces of technology the same concepts are done where a gas is burned creating a plasma at very high temperature. In all this technology at this point i limited to certain applications however in its future it’s very likely that it’ll become more and more popular.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/plasma-converter.htm
http://www.enotes.com/how-products-encyclopedia/light-bulb
http://www.plasmas.org/what-are-plasmas.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_(physics)
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/plasma-display.htm