if plasma is the 4 state of matter where does it fall in line with gas, liquid, solid?
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 1184401 What do you mean IF, it simply is a state of matter... Heat something enough and you will break the bonds and create free electrons and turn any matter into plasma or just use ionizing radiation.
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link to public.lanl.gov]
Plasma is by far the most common form of matter known. Plasma in the stars and in the tenuous space between them make up over 99% of the visible universe and perhaps most of that which is not visible. On earth we live upon an island of "ordinary" matter. The different states of matter found on earth are solid, liquid, and gas. We have learned to work, play, and rest using these states of matter. Sir William Crookes, an English physicist, identified another, more fundamental, state of matter in 1879.
In 1929, Nobel Laureate Irving Langmuir gave this state a name, plasma. He borrowed the term from medical science because the matter with which he worked resembled life itself. It formed cells through bifurcation and often acted in a complicated and unpredictable manner. Plasma is defined as an assemblage of charged particles called electrons and ions that react collectively to forces exerted by electric and magnetic fields.
Given its nature, the plasma state is characterized by a complexity that vastly exceeds that exhibited in the solid, liquid, and gaseous states. Correspondingly, the study of the physical and especially the electrodynamical properties of plasma forms one of the most far ranging and difficult research areas in physics today. From spiral galaxies to controlled fusion, this little-known state of matter, the fundamental state, is proving to be of ever greater significance in explaining the dynamics of the universe and in harnessing the material world for the greatest technological result.
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link to plasmauniverse.info]