I'm Such A Nerd

Throughout elementary school, junior high, and high school, no one was ever able to give me a decent definition of plasma. It was the fourth stage of matter; this, I knew. It went along with solid, liquid, and gas. I was told that it was high in energy. 99% of matter in the universe is plasma. But no one, not even the fabled Doctor Stone, gave me a definition I liked. Actually, I'm not sure I asked Doctor Stone. He probably could've. Come to think of it, Emmett probably could've told me, too. Anyway. I had a slight fascination with plasma, perhaps in part because no one would define it properly for me. Well, and there was the high energy thing. You know, big explosions.
: D

And then, I finally took a physical science class here in college that is a combination of physics, chemistry, geology, and astronomy. Seeing as plasma is the main matter involved in astronomy, and they're also teaching physics and chemistry, they HAD to give me a good definition. Woot.

And so I finally got my definition. Plasma is matter that has been so charged with energy that the electrons and nuclei become completely disassociated from each other, shooting about randomly and independently. Delicious chaos.

After thinking about this, I realized that this definition made plasma intrinsically different from the other three phases of matter with which I'm familiar. They all depend on the way their atoms or molecules sit with other atoms or molecules. In solids, they are tightly locked in position and don't move at all. Well, a little, but not much. In liquids, they are still rather close, but the atoms and molecules can slide past each other. In a gas, the atoms and molecules are far apart and speed around at uber velocities, exerting relatively little force on each other. Plasma, however, does not depend on the links between atoms or molecules. Plasma is formed when the atoms are ripped apart. Plasma is more like a perfect ion than anything else.

So, I thought about how this makes plasma different. First of all, the destruction of the traditional atom makes it completely alien to what comes to mind when humans think of the physical world. Plasma isn't something we can feel and touch; plasma is in fire, in lightning. To touch plasma is to lose your nerve endings. On a slightly more scientific note, plasma cannot exist in compounds. There is no plasma form of water, or milk, or anything like that. All these things are formed by the bonds between atoms of different elements. Those bonds do not exist in plasma. Plasma can only exist as basic elements, and it doesn't even behave as we would expect those elements to behave. Because plasma has no nuclei-electron bonds, it left entirely to the whims of electromagnetic forces and random chaos.

Summary: I found out that plasma is different than the other three stages of matter and spent a lot of time thinking about it. Then, while writing this, I did some research about plasma and ended up reading about antihydrogen and all manner of good stuff about an hour later.

Conclusion: This is SO much cooler than football. 8-)