For Students
plasma
state of matter
Also known as: plasma state
- Key People:
- Lev Davidovich Landau
- Hannes Alfvén
- Related Topics:
- magnetic Reynolds number
- plasma oscillation
- pinch effect
- plasmoid
- debye length
plasma, in physics, an electrically conducting medium in which there are roughly equal numbers of positively and negatively charged particles, produced when the atoms in a gas become ionized. It is sometimes referred to as the fourth state of matter, distinct from the solid, liquid, and gaseous states. The negative charge is usually carried by electrons, each of which has one unit of negative charge. The positive charge is typically carried by atoms or molecules that are missing those same electrons. In some rare but interesting cases, electrons missing from one type of atom or molecule become attached to another ...(100 of 8397 words)