We all know that there are four states of matter, each one formed by supplying energy to its predecessor, usually in the form of heat.
But what happens when you heat a plasma? After all, it is an ionized gas....would, e.g. the components within, e.g. protons begin to break apart?woelen - 21-8-2012 at 11:50
A plasma remains a plasma at stronger heating, but more and more electrons can be ripped off from the atoms. At a certain temperature, the motion of
the atoms is so violent that nuclei can collide into each other and nuclear reactions occur. This is what happens inside stars. The higher the
pressure of the plasma, the lower the temperature at which nuclear reactions can occur. But the temperatures, needed for nuclear reactions are high,
regardless of pressure. Inside the sun there is a temperature of 15 million Celsius or something like that and at that temperature, hydrogen nuclei
can react with each other. The pressure inside the sun is enormous. If lower pressure is available, then nuclear reactions occur at even higher
temperatures (100's of millions or even around 1 billion Celsius).Endimion17 - 21-8-2012 at 12:05
There aren't four states of matter. That's a stupid myth stirred up by teachers who weren't been updating their knowledge during the 20th century
while a whole bunch of different states had been discovered.
There are three basic states of matter. Solid, liquid, gas. Even that can be cut down into two: condensed (solid, liquid) and fluid (liquid, gas). So
liquid transcends those two as it's a condensed fluid.
Plasma is one of several special states, like superfluid, supersolid, metallic glass, liquid crystals, surface phases, etc.
It is very similar to gas and there's no sense adding it to the existing basic three states.
If you want to find out what happens when you heat plasma, check the early history of the universe, according to the Big Bang theory. Quark-gluon
plasma forms when nucleons break apart.watson.fawkes - 21-8-2012 at 16:13
