Plasma Ball Of Electricity For STEM Science Projects Stock Photo

The plasma ball is a miniature Tesla coil and teaching tool for teachers. Inside the ball is a coil of wires that have electrons going through them oscillating at a very high frequency. This shakes the atoms around the wires so hard that their electrons start to fall off! Inside the glass globe is a partial vacuum. This just means that some of the air has been sucked out. Because there is not as much air in there, it is easier to make electric sparks that can be seen. Plasma physics is created by adding energy to a gas so that some of its electrons leave its atoms. This is called ionization. It results in negatively charged electrons, and positively charged ions. Unlike the other states of matter, the charged particles in a plasma will react strongly to electric and magnetic fields electromagnetic fields. If a plasma loses heat, the ions will re-form into a gas, emitting the energy which had caused them to ionize. Plasma is a 4th state of matter. Each type of gas makes a different color.