Plasma Ball And Fluorescent Lamp Experiment

Done By:Gourisankaran.P

What is Plasma?Plasma is considered the fourth state of matter. The three other

states are solid, liquid, and gas. Plasma is actually the most common form of matter in the universe!

Plasma is a cloud of protons, neutrons and electrons where all the electrons have come loose from their respective molecules and atoms, giving the plasma the ability to act as a whole rather than as a bunch of atoms.

A plasma is more like a gas than any of the other states of matter because the atoms are not in constant contact with each other, but it behaves differently from a gas.

It has what scientists call collective behavior. This means that the plasma can flow like a liquid or it can contain areas that

are like clumps of atoms sticking together.

What is a Plasma Ball? It is also called a Plasma Globe or a Plasma Lamp.  It is a clear glass sphere filled with a mixture of various noble

gases with a high-voltage electrode in the center of the sphere. Plasma filaments extend from the inner electrode to the outer glass insulator, giving the appearance of multiple constant beams of colored light.

The plasma lamp was invented by Nikola Tesla after his experimentation with high-frequency currents in an evacuated glass tube for the purpose of studying high voltage phenomena. That’s why the electrode at the center of a plasma ball is also often known as a Tesla coil. Tesla called this invention an inert gas discharge tube. The modern plasma balls popular as educational items today were designed by Bill Parker.

Typically, such lamps use a noble gas or a mixture of these gases and additional materials such as metal halides, sodium, mercury or sulphur.

The most common noble gas used is Neon. Neon is a chemical element with symbol Ne and atomic number 10.

Plasma filamentsThe electricity from the electric diode creates plasma filaments which appear like blue and purple light.

What Happens When We Touch It?Placing a hand near the

glass offers an attractive place for the energy to flow.

Touching it causes a single filament, from the inner ball to the point of contact, to become brighter and thinner.

The filament is brighter because there is more current flowing through it.

Fluorescent Lamp A fluorescent lamp or a fluorescent tube is a low

pressure mercury-vapor gas-discharge lamp that uses fluorescence to produce visible light. An electric current in the gas excites mercury vapor which produces short-wave ultraviolet light that then causes a phosphor coating on the inside of the bulb to glow. A fluorescent lamp converts electrical energy into useful light much more efficiently than incandescent lamps. The typical luminous efficacy of fluorescent lighting systems is 50–100 lumens per watt, several times the efficacy of incandescent bulbs with comparable light output.

A compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) is a fluorescent lamp which uses a tube which is curved or folded to fit into the space of an incandescent bulb, and a compact electronic ballast in the base of the lamp.

Plasma Ball And Fluorescent Lamp Experiment

When regular fluorescent light bulbs are brought close to a plasma ball through which electricity is being passed through, they begin to glow. The bulbs glow because the electricity in the plasma globe is sent from the center of the ball at high frequencies, similar to radio waves. The noble gas inside

the fluorescent bulbs react with the high frequency electricity and they begin to glow!