Stu Mirowitz, age i5, of Bayside, N.Y., for his question;
What is meant by the plasma pinch?
This is a new scientific term as new as the dawn of the Space Age. Plasma is a gift, one of the first big gifts from the ocean of space beyond the earth. It is the stuff that fills space itself. Scientists are very busy studying the nature and behavior of this strange stuff, and one of its odd reactions is called the plasma pinch.
Plasma is the most plentiful stuff in the universe. It fills the far reaches of space. The stars are made of plasma. The Van Allen Belts are plasma, and here on earth it is plasma that works in a fluorescent bulb. Our world is made of solid, liquid and gaseous states of matter. Plasma is not a solid, not a liquid and not gaseous like our air. It has been called the fourth state of matter.
The matter in plasma is in the form of minute and widely scattered particles. Suppose our moon were hollow and filled with interplanetary plasma. The total matter would weigh about two and a half ounces. Out in space, these rare particles are at the mercy of tremendous forces. Space is spanned by gravity and radio, light, magnetism and other mighty electro magnetic energies.
Many of the particles in plasma are ions, which are avows stripped of one or more of their electrons. The ions carry a positive charge. The lost electrons, with negative charges, are also present. As temperatures rise, the plasma conducts electricity. At high temperatures, it forms threads that conduce electric current. These dynamic filaments perform the odd trick known as the plasma pinch.
An electric current is surrounded by its own magnetic field. This magnetism attracts the filaments of plasma together. The parallel threads become pinched and form a shape like the narrow waist of an hourglass. The plasma pinch is but one of many strange tricks performed by the dynamic stuff Which is neither solid, liquid nor gas.
Plasmologists see a useful future for this material which fills the vast reaches of space. They study all kinds of plasma under all kinds of conditions. We already use plasma in certain light bulbs, and experts have plans for plasma engines. One such gadget could use the waste gases from our combustion engines. Scientists suspect that plasma could be made to yield 1000 times more energy than any fuel we now know.