Plasma Ball

[Mid Life Crisis]

Some wierd shit going on in my house this evening!

My 12yr old daughter has a Plasma Ball in her bedroom. You know the type, put your hand on them and they impress you for about 10 seconds then you put them on next to your bed and forget about them. Well this ere Plasma Ball wasn't plugged in at all and not used for a while........... it blew apart covering my nipper in glass/plastic

Anybody have any idea's why this happened :dunno:

And now i have just been out to put the Blackbird away and me fookin keys are missing :B :B

 

[Mid Life Crisis]

For years wierd things have been happening in our house, so much so that a close mate who is very religeous asked a vicar, no sniggering at the back, to call on us. He walked around the house but stopped right outside my daughters bedroom and said he felt a really strong power I thought shit!! Exorcist!!... and had visions of that film spinning around my head for a while.
My wife has been told 'something from the other side' follows her from house to house but she will never come to any harm.
The only thing following me are bills :B

But yes.......it does make you wonder.

 

[Jaws]

Someone in the family has one of those things.. We was all sitting round chatting one evening when he dragged it out to show us..
Then left it switched on in the middle of the table..

We was waiting fo r a fone call from another family member who was arriving by train that evening,, the idea being that one of us would drive to the station and collect her..

Eventually a taxi pulled up out of which said reative stepped..
Moaning like feck, she told how she had phoned and phoned but got no reply..

So I tried the number and got the ring tone ok, bu the fone in the hall was silent .

Then for one reason or other the ball was unplugged.. and lo! The fone rang ..

Various experiments showed that yes, even though the ball was a room away, it killed the fone stone dead !

As a matter of interest, does anyone know if they use a mini Teslar coil or what to generate the effect ?

 

[R2B2]

Found this.......
.........................................................


Ok, so what are they ?

Well, essentially, they are glass globes with 'lightning bolts' coming from a central electrode to the surface of the sphere. If you touch the globe, the lightning will normally follow your hand. They were also popular in the eighties!

Right...so wot's in one ?

Inside the globe is a mixture of gases (see further below) at a reduced pressure. Less that atmospheric pressure gives longer sparks, or a lower voltage requirement. The typical pressure is 1/10 or 1/20 of an atmosphere. Too dim, and the bolts will be fuzzy. In some cases, the inner bulb will be surrounded by glass, this is the case here. The inner bulb is largely filled with metal, and the space between the small and large bulbs are filled with the inert gases. (See below)

There is a high frequency AC, or a high frequency pulsating DC applied to the electrode in the centre. This is in order for the current to get through the glass globe and surrounding air. Most plasma balls work at a few thousand volts, but around 10, 000 volts for 'make your own' ones. Most frequencies are from a few to a few tens of kilohertz.

As the plasma is generated, it gets hotter, and since hot air rises, the streamers will tend to move up the sides of the ball. The streamers, as it is plasma, stay intact until an instability breaks them. Thats the principle behind the Jacobs ladder so beloved of horror - film makers..

But how does it work ?

It emits light because of 'spontaneous emission'. This basically means that the ion, atom or molecule (the particles) have a higher level of energy than stable ones, so become unstable. The particles emit photons. Through this release, the particles go back to stability, only to start again. Each time a particle goes from the same higher state to lower, the same photon will be emitted. The only way to change the colour of the 'lightning' is to change the gases (see below)

The only way a particle becomes excited is if a moving particle comes whizzing past with enough energy. The electron releases energy to the particle by transference. The light we see is by thousands of particles 'spontaneously emitting' at the same time. To achieve the look in plasma balls, we need to have billions of them. A standard 8'' width plasma ball will have approximately 100 billion billion particles. To get an idea, 2500 particles span the length equal to the diameter of a human hair!!!



Colours of Gases:
Helium : gives a brilliant white colour
Neon : gives red streamers with orange pads at the end (the pads are pinkish red on the pictures above)
Carbon Dioxide : is a white or blue white colour
Nitrogen : streamers are usually greyish pink or light orange, depending on the lights and voltage
Oxygen : and water vapour are basically useless. They don't glow brightly, and require more voltage
Argon : streamers are violet/lavendar
Argon and neon : have the least voltage requirement. This is what we believe is in the one pictured
Krypton : is close to white, or light grey
Xenon : streamers are like lightening, and bluish white or bluish grey