PLASMA! Today we visited the UCLA plasma labs. The first machine we saw teased us. No one knew too much about the fourth state of matter but I assumed that it moved like a viscus liquid. It didn’t. we saw “flashes” of plasma in the first machine each flash lasted only milliseconds and was being recorded and documented. The machine itself was huge. A giant steel tube ringed by puple and blue electromagnets which when turned on to full power took more electricity to use than all of Westwood. After we saw the giant tube we went deeper into the lab. The lower levels housed a gargantuan cylinder. The old tube was about as tall as I am and was the length of a small bus. The cylinder was easily triple my height and as big around as the auditorium at C(n)SI. When we looked inside the flash was gone. Replaceing the flash was a racing blur of plasma that circled the cylinder three times making three glowing red rings. The behavior of this form of mater seemed almost sentient. This solidified my understanding of the mixture of art and science. The beauty of the plasma was easy to see also easy to see is the science necessary for its existence. Even to keep it around for under a seocond! Indeed new arts could easily be created through this pinnacle of modern science. The plasma lab is deffinitly a culmination of what we learn here at art sci. its both at the same time. Its art and science. But not separately its both at the same time you cant take one aspect away without taking the other.
links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_(physics)
http://fusedweb.llnl.gov/CPEP/Chart_Pages/5.Plasma4StateMatter.html
http://home.howstuffworks.com/plasma-cutter.htmhttp://home.howstuffworks.com/plasma-cutter.htm
http://www.sculpture.net/community/showthread.php?t=6820
http://www.physics.ucla.edu/plasmalab/