Project #1 - Introduction to Plasma

There is nothing like the smell of plasma from a carbon arc. It reminds me of Trooper followspots and old movie projectors. Theater lighting directors wrote cues around the time required to change out carbon rods in the spotlights.

A prime consideration for demonstrating plasma in an indoor classroom environment is safety, both mine and my fellow students. Plasma is a form of its own: ionized gas, not simply a gas. Since there must be sufficient power to persuade one or more ions to be free from any associated atom, I had to have enough power to maintain an arc, yet not so much that things got too hot, too bright, or too high in voltage or current to be dangerous. And, did I mention that this also involved water?

I used a #2 copper wire for one pole and a single carbon rod. These were held in place by 2 copper wire lugs, which were screwed to a piece of CPVC pipe with T couplings on each end for planar stability. All of this was dunked into a pyrex baking dish filled with tap water acting as a cooling pond.

My demonstration also included a short duration of

plasma generation in open air, providing the familiar electrical sound effects.

I used a couple of pliers with insulated handles to manipulate the rods. While this was not a technically reliable way to start and maintain plasma generation, it served its purpose to demonstrate a bit of weird science. The color of the plasma indicates temperatures around 5000 degrees C (or K).