WEBVTT - TechStuff Plays with Plasma 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:18.000 tech Stuff from hof dot com. Hello everyone, and welcome 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:20.200 to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulette and I 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:22.200 am an editor at how Stuff works dot com. Sitting 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:25.680 across from me, as always, his senior writer, Jonathan, the 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:30.400 Seller of Lightning Rods arrived just ahead of the storm. 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:35.600 Wait seller or seller s E L L E er uh. 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:38.559 And technically that's cheating because that's the first line from 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:41.520 chapter one of a book, but there is a prologue 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:43.320 to that book. But I wanted to use that line 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:46.680 because it kind of ties into what we're talking about today, which, 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:48.839 by the way, comes to us courtesy of a little 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:53.599 Facebook feedback. You and this comes to us from our 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:59.160 friend Bassu, who says, Hey, Jonathan, our plasma ray guns possible. 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:02.240 I'm waiting for the next podcast on this. Well, here's 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:05.560 our next podcast on plasma reguns. But before we get 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:10.479 into the idea of weaponizing plasma, let's talk a bit 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:14.280 about what plasma is and maybe some common or at 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:21.560 least more realistic applications for plasma that that we used today. Okay, So, 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:25.759 so plasma it is the fourth state of matter. Yeah, 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:30.960 it's funny to me because growing up, um, perhaps my 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:33.679 my school system was narrow minded, although I don't think so. 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:37.480 We we learned about solids likewids and gases. Those were 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:41.080 the three states of matter and that's all there were. Yeah, 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:45.399 and the pronosaurus was a dinosaur exactly. You know, it's 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:48.840 probably because I would guess it's probably more because growing up, 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:54.639 plasma is a little hard to grasp. It's I figured out. Literally, 0:01:54.680 --> 0:02:00.000 I figured up, yes, because if you can't, it hurts. Uh. 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:03.600 I'll the way I figure the best explanation would be 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:07.800 look at it from the stance of molecular movement. Okay, 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:11.000 so with solids, the solids are made up of molecules, 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:14.160 and those molecules don't move a lot. They are moving. 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:17.200 So even in that granite table that you might see 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:19.919 that the molecules within that granite table are actually in motion, 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:23.040 they're just not moving a lot. You can take it 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:25.480 for granite that they'll stay put. Yes, And then in 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:29.559 liquids you have a little more molecular movement, and the 0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:34.080 the actual composition of the matter it acts differently. Right, 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:37.800 So ice is a solid. Water is a liquid, and 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:40.000 then if you add more energy into the system and 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:43.359 you create more molecular movement, you can make that liquid 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:46.040 turn into a gas. And in the gas, you've got 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:49.560 a lot more molecular movement. The molecules aren't as packed 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:51.640 closely as close together as it would be in a 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:54.160 liquid or in a solid, and that's when you've got 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:56.680 the gas form. Well, plasma is the next step. It's 0:02:56.680 --> 0:03:01.560 when you've added even more energy into that that element, 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:07.600 and this also tends to strip away electrons ionizing that gas. 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:10.800 So you've got free electrons flowing through the gas that 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.560 an ionized gas that is plasma. So in a way, 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:16.799 you can think of plasma is sort of a subset 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:19.079 of gas, but it's really its own thing because it's 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:25.200 an ionized gas, Jonathan, it strips away electrons. Are you sure? Well, 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:29.480 it pushes electrons way out into the outer shells. I was. 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:32.840 I was going for the joke there they lose electrons. 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:37.600 Are you sure? I'm positive? OK? No. The reason why 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:41.280 I said that is because literally this week phil Plate 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:46.240 the Bad Astronomer, wrote a post about ionizing atmosphere conditions 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:49.920 and how that creates are the auroras to the Aurora 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:53.200 borealis and the Aurora estrallis, and he had written about 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:56.760 how it strips electrons away from oxygen and then later 0:03:56.840 --> 0:03:59.960 corrected himself saying, all right, technically that is not correct. 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.640 What really happens is that the electrons are pushed to 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:06.640 the further energy shells around the nucleus of the atom, 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:09.880 and when the electrons come back down to their natural 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:14.960 energy shell, photons are released. And that's the aurora. So 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:17.400 that's why I wanted to not do the I'm positive 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:20.839 off the bat okay okay, Um, you can tell we 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:25.360 don't we We sort of prepare, but we don't rehearse. Um. 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:28.760 It's funny too that that we think about plasmas being 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:32.200 the fourth state of matter, and the way it's uh 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:37.040 kind of strange because um plasma is far more prevalent 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:42.360 in our universe, most plentiful state of matter, of all 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:45.960 matter in the universe, all anything that's not dark matter, 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:50.920 whether or not that exists isn't isn't totally different subject matter. 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:54.400 But that's really too many matters. But yes, of all 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:58.400 the matter that we have observed, plasma makes up. And 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:00.640 you might think, well, that's weird be because everything I 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:04.440 encounter tends to be either a solid liquid or a gas. 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:07.279 I very rarely encounter plasma. Well, that's because you don't 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:10.560 live on the Sun. I have encountered a couple of 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:15.520 people who have encountered plasma firsthand, um, more than once, 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:19.440 because they have been hit by lightning. Yes, and that's 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:21.880 what I was saying with my quote at the beginning 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:26.080 of the show. Lightning is something that can create plasmas. 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:29.960 Where the ways that we can find naturally occurring plasma 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:33.720 on Earth. The plasma does not last very long. Um. 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:35.840 But we'll get into that in a second. And I 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:40.800 would avoid coming into contact with plasma as often as possible. Now, 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:43.839 there are other plasmas that we encounter. Anything, any sort 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:46.000 of ionized gas is a plasma. There are some that 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:49.760 are considered cold plasmas. And by cold, we're talking in 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:52.680 terms of relativity here, right, you know, it's just it's 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:56.160 colder than say the plasma you would find shooting out 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:58.880 of the Sun. And then there's blood plasma, right, which 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:02.320 is totally different, totally not the same stuff, but like 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:06.360 a neon sign that's that's an ionized gas within the 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:09.280 neon is ionized within that sign that technically is a 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:11.760 plasma it's just not the same quite quite the same 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:13.960 thing is what we would find, say a plasma cutter, 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:15.839 which is kind of what I wanted to talk about, 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:19.320 because plasma cutter, that's something that's it's a tool that 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:24.159 we use that can cut through really sturdy, thick sheets 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:27.120 of metal. And it's really impressive if you ever see 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:29.040 one of these in action, because you might look at 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:32.040 a sheet of metal and you think that, how the 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:35.159 heck are you supposed to shape this so that you 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:38.799 can use it in various applications like building airplanes. In fact, 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:42.239 building airplanes is kind of where the idea for plasma 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:47.360 cutters came into play. Yes, that's that's true. And they 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:51.039 plasma cutters not only cut through metal, they do it 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:54.840 like butter. Yeah, like butter. I'll give you a topic. 0:06:56.160 --> 0:07:01.119 Plasma Plasma cutters are are really, if you will pardon 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:05.279 my again over simplification, really really fancy because not only 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:09.400 are they cutting their cutting very precisely, and they tend 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:13.640 to uh basically the way they cut through it, they 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:16.600 do it uh in a temperature so hot that it 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:20.240 it steals off the metal and prevents corrosion. Yes. Um, 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:23.680 again that's an oversimplification. Let's get into what's really going 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:27.520 on here. Sure, So back during World War Two, there 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:33.559 was a demand for building aircraft very very very quickly. Yes, 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:36.720 and that's that's kind of a problem because aircraft are 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:41.200 very complex, very large devices. So that meant that, you know, 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:44.080 you had to find a new way to go into 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:48.920 mass production. And so there were different experiments being done 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:55.800 about new means of welding materials together. And uh, some 0:07:55.840 --> 0:08:00.720 folks discovered that if they used a gas and inert 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:04.600 gas fed through an electric arc, so they create an 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:07.080 electric arc between a couple of electrodes and they shoot 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:10.760 gas through that arc, that they could create a very 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:15.520 effective welding tool. Now, um, so that was sort of 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:17.680 the basis of the plasma cutter. Now, this was not 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:20.240 used to cut. This was used to weld, so welding 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:26.960 different sheets of metal together, yes, exactly so, uh, but 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:29.240 that that started the foundation. What happened was in the 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:33.120 nineteen sixties some engineers figured out that they could actually 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:38.240 increase the temperatures of this this uh, this plasma by 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:42.840 speeding up the flow of gas and by controlling the 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:47.000 diameter of the nozzle. So if they decrease the diameter, 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:50.920 they're they're making it, you know, narrower, and they're increasing 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:53.840 the flow of gas and they're pushing it through this electrode. 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:59.320 It would actually increase the temperature quite a few orders 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:02.760 of magnitude. Yes, And this is where the idea of 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:06.559 using this to cut through metals started to come into play. 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:14.679 And uh, technically, the typical plasma cutter uses the sheet 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:17.120 of metal that it's cutting as part of a circuit. 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:21.680 So you've got to think about the parts of a 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:25.600 of a plasma cutter. You've got an electrode inside of it, 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:31.120 that's what that's what's providing the the the charge. You've 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:34.560 got the cutting gas that is inside of it. This 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:36.920 is the the inert gas that's going to be passed 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:41.800 through this electric charge and superheated to plasma. And then 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:45.880 you've got a controlling gas that's around that that actually 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:50.480 is used to help concentrate the flow of the cutting gas. 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:53.840 It's it's so you've got the nozzle that's helping concentrate 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:56.280 the flow, and if you've got a second gas that's 0:09:56.760 --> 0:10:00.400 also sort of pushing against that cutting gas, keeping it 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:04.960 nice and tight. And then Once you put the the 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:09.480 plasma cutter against the piece of metal, then that creates 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:12.800 a circuit. The shock from or the charge from the 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:15.480 electrode goes to the metal. The metal has sort of 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:18.920 a positive charge to it the and and we know 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:21.160 that the negative wants to go to positive, so the 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:25.360 electricity hits the metal. The gas flowing through the nozzle 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:32.520 is ionized, becomes plasma and superheats and actually turns metal 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:35.440 into into molten material at the blink of an eye. 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:37.240 And that's when you can just start cutting through it 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:41.040 like it was as Chris said. But yeah, one, when 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:47.160 you're reaching temperatures of thirty degrees fahrenheit, that's degrees celsius. 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:51.000 That's pretty hot. And when we're talking about increasing the 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:53.599 flow of the gas, we're talking this this gas is 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:56.880 flowing at a rate of around twenty thousand feet per second. 0:10:57.080 --> 0:10:58.680 Do you know how many meters per second? That is? 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:03.960 Courting on my fingers about six someone's been reading how 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:07.560 stuff works dot com. We do have an article on 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:10.360 how plasma cutters work at how stuff works dot com, 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:12.520 which is it's a good thing to read about. And 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:14.800 if any of this sounds familiar to you, guys, then 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:17.079 you've been listening to tech stuff for a really long time, 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:21.280 because we did do an episode ages ago about plasma 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:24.760 waste converters and what a plasma waste converter is. It's 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:30.400 a really cool application of this technology. It's essentially using 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:34.000 a device similar to a plasma cutter a plasma torch 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:39.400 to create this incredibly super hot ionized gas in order 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:44.760 to liquefy or gasify trash. So, depending upon what the 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:47.760 trash is made out of, it will either turn into 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:50.840 a gas because you know what's the plasma has applied 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:54.760 to it, or it will liquefy uh. So essentially car 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:58.960 carbon based uh elements, anything that's carbon based within the 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:01.800 trash is going to gas suffi uh and everything else 0:12:01.840 --> 0:12:06.800 liquefies and um it's you can use that gas depending 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:09.280 on on what you're producing. You can actually use that 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:12.840 gas as fuel. And the liquefied stuff, once it cools, 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:16.320 turns into stuff that looks kind of like obsidian. In fact, 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:18.920 I have I have a sample of that because when 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:23.319 I did the article, I visited a engineer at Georgia 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:28.360 Tech who gave me a sample of this solidified waste 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:32.319 which looked like it was a volcano rock, which essentially 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:35.160 is what it is kind of. So anyway, that's another 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:40.040 interesting use of plasma technology. Now let's kind of talk 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:47.360 a little bit about the concept of plasma weapons. So 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:52.240 we had our listeners specifically asked us, like our plasma 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:55.880 ray guns possible? Um In a word, no, at least 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:59.240 not with today's technology. And there are a lot of 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:04.040 different reasons for this. One of those is that um plasma, 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:06.440 if you were to generate plasma at a at a 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:09.880 temperature that would be considered weaponized. So we're talking about 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:14.440 you know, hot hot plasma UM. You have the problem 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:18.840 of heat dispersing too quickly. So, uh, the the ionized 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:20.840 gas would lose a lot of energy as soon as 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:26.400 it leaves wherever wherever you're generating it, right, So at 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:28.600 the point of generation, it's going to be very, very hot. 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:31.319 So if I were point blank right up against you 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:33.520 and I pushed a weapon against you and I pulled 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:35.760 the trigger, then yeah, you're gonna get cut in half, 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:38.720 or you're gonna have a whole drill through you, essentially, 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:42.079 But if you're you know, twenty feet away, this ionized 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:45.240 gas is going to be losing energy at a very 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:48.400 fast rate, and as it loses energy, it's going to 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:53.240 revert back to a regular gas and you can't really 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:57.319 get it to travel very far. And it also disperses. 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:01.480 So if you were to have the ionized gas come 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:03.560 out of the end of a ray gun, it's not 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:06.400 gonna be a ray or a beam, right, It's not 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:10.160 gonna move forward in a concentrated beam. It's going to 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:14.480 disperse outward, it's gonna bloom. So in that sense, you 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:17.040 also don't really have much of a weapon because the 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:19.240 further away the person is, it's it's just like a 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:23.080 shotgun in a way. You know, a shotgun shoots shot 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:26.520 and that shot spreads as it goes out, So the 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:30.080 further away someone is, the less concentrated the impact will 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:33.640 be right right, So same sort of thing, except even 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:36.960 on a bigger scale, because we're talking about individual atoms here, 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:42.240 not just uh shot. And so that's another problem, um, 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:45.760 And there are various ways of getting around this. If 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:49.800 you had a gun that somehow could create an electrical 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:52.800 charge all the way down to wherever your target is, 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:58.240 it could ionize the gas immediately around the electrode. But 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:02.600 in that case you're talking about some sort of superpowered taser. Yeah. Now, 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:04.280 if you'll remember, if you think of it as as 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:07.600 the plasma cutter, you'll remember that in our discussion on 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:10.240 how it worked, just a moment ago, UM, Jonathan was 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:15.040 pointing out that the metal that's being cut requires uh 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:18.280 is is basically charged. It's part, it becomes part of 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:22.680 the circuit. So if you were shooting at something five 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:27.000 feet away, for example, UM, it's going to be very difficult. 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:30.200 I mean, you can't circuit. You can't you don't have 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:35.360 a circuit. UM. Also, you'll remember that Jonathan was talking 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:38.360 about the gas that's on the outside of the pressurized 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:42.600 gas that is used to cut UM, that's controlling the 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:47.840 the cutting of the plasma cutter. Without that, UM, it's 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:50.200 exactly what Jonathan says. You don't have a real way 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:53.200 to control it. And you might say, well what about lightning. Well, 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:58.040 lightning it forks it's not controlled. UM. So yes, lightning 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:01.960 can can travel a long distance, but it also it's 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:04.440 a charge. We know that the ground and the clouds 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:07.960 are charged differently. Yeah, it's essentially a circuit. It's a 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:11.680 certually that only lasts a moment. But you know it's 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:15.080 not so if you had if you somehow arranged it 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:19.000 so that everyone on the enemy's side war of particular 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:22.800 suit that should positively charge clothing, so that I could 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:26.120 use this negatively charged electrode to create a circuit between 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:29.320 me and you. Then I can vaporize you. That would 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:33.400 be great. So yeah, it's a little tricky. Um, Yeah, 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:35.000 there are a lot of other issues with this, but 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:38.840 there that's not the only way to weaponize plasma. That's 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:40.560 you know, that's if you were to have a gun, 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:43.880 like in the Halo universe. In the Halo University, aliens 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:47.320 have plasma weapons and they shoot these kind of blobs 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:53.120 of energy, which you know, essentially it's like uh, blobs 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:58.160 of of superheated gas and they travel as if it 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:02.600 were a solid projectile and uh like little sunlits. Yeah, 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:05.439 these little energy weapons that can do massive amounts of damage, 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:10.280 particularly literally to your shields, right against shields. So yeah, 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:14.840 supercharger plasma pistol and then immediately switched to your regular pistol. 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:18.639 It's in a great way of anyway. So that's just 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:22.399 not viable right now. The equipment we would need to 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:25.399 create plasma is much larger than what you could have 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:29.080 in a handheld gun and you just wouldn't have those results. 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:32.399 But that's not the only way. There are other ways. 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:36.280 Like there's an example, there's a weapon that's been worked 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:39.879 on by the US government over the last few years 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:45.480 called a pulsed energy projectile weapon or p e P. Now, 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:50.520 this creates a uses. It uses a very high powered 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:54.399 um laser style weapon. So it's not a plasma weapon 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:58.400 at its at its source, right, it's just create it's 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:01.000 just firing off energy. It's an inner g weapon. And 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:03.800 the idea is that when the energy contacts something solid, 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:07.960 then it creates a plasma. It actually excites the material 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:11.040 that it contacts with and that's what creates the plasma. 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:14.640 So the plasma is not contained within the weapon, uh, 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:18.560 and it's it's just it generates as soon as the 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:20.919 ray hits something solid. And then at that point what 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:25.160 happens is the plasma that's generated quickly starts to expand 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:28.119 because the energy from the ray is continuing to hit it. Okay, 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:33.479 So that expanding plasma creates an electromagnetic magnetic pulse, and 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:38.400 this pulse is geared to uh kind of short circuit 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:42.320 our pain receptors. And the idea is that this weapon 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:45.000 would either paralyze you. It would just make all you know, 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:48.000 your muscles contract, kind of like a massive taser, or 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:50.359 would paralyze you with pain. You would feel so much 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:53.000 pain you would be incapable of doing anything else. This 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:57.400 is the pain ray that people have talked about. And uh, 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:00.359 there's a lot of concern in the International commu Unity 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:03.919 that such a device would be used not to stop 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:08.240 a riot, but rather as a divisive torture to h 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:11.040 to really torture a person if you were trying to 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:14.360 interrogate them. And of course the whole torture thing has 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:20.080 its own issues beyond just the technical but that is 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:23.920 a way that people are weaponizing plasma. It's just not 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:27.360 using plasma as a direct weapon. It's just part of 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:30.520 the weapon. And there are other ways as well. There 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:36.280 are ideas of creating plasma to act as an antenna 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:39.800 because they can be much more efficient than metal antennas, 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:43.800 and or even use them in anti missile systems, where 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:46.200 the idea would be that if you had missiles coming in, 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:50.119 you could fire beams up into the upper atmosphere ionized 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:52.720 part of the upper atmosphere so that when missiles were 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:55.639 passing through them, they would detonate and not land and 0:19:55.760 --> 0:20:00.240 hit you. Um. So those are ways of weaponizing pla SMA. 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:03.960 That's not not quite the same as having a a 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:07.879 cool ray gun. You know, you're Q thirty five space 0:20:07.920 --> 0:20:11.879 modulator or whatever it's called. I'm sure. I'm sure someone's 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:13.119 gonna write and so they know it was a Q 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:18.520 thirty two space modulator. Sorry, that was the obsolete person 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:23.200 I thought I've upgraded. Yeah, I'm It's also hard to 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:27.320 imagine something that shot plasma that would, you know, stop 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:31.600 at a certain person. So it would it would shoot 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:35.520 through schools, it would seem really it would, yeah, if 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:40.360 it if it were really a superheated gas um. Yeah, 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:42.879 I mean, if you were to find some way to 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:46.640 control it so that it maintained its integrity and could 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:50.200 travel best just distances, then what would stop it from 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:52.760 shooting through whatever it was you hit and then going 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:55.600 moving on. I mean, it would lose energy every time 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:59.040 it contos. But if you're talking about superheated, if you're 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:03.119 talking about temperatures that rival the temperature of the sun, UM, 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:05.440 it's gonna take a while for that to to lose 0:21:05.560 --> 0:21:07.800 enough energy for it to um. If you could keep 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:09.760 it concentrated like that, it would take a while for 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:12.960 it to lose enough energy for it to stop, which 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:15.880 just reminds me of the documentary Real Genius where they 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:18.160 fire off the laser and it goes all the way 0:21:18.160 --> 0:21:21.800 through the entire laboratory and shoots through the head of 0:21:21.840 --> 0:21:29.760 a statue on the quad. Yeah. So anyway, Yeah, that's 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:33.679 that's the basis for the whole idea about plasma weapons. 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:35.800 I think I'm not going to go so far as 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:39.679 to say they're impossible. It's just that with today's technology 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:42.600 they are not really possible, and it may be that 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:47.600 they could be possible but not practical. Yeah, it'll it 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:49.760 may very well be that by the time we could 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:54.440 create a plasma weapon, something even scarier is out there. 0:21:54.560 --> 0:21:57.720 So um, yeah, it'll be interesting to see if there's 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:02.280 there are further developments in attempting to weaponize plasma technology. 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:05.800 But really, when it comes down to it, it's very 0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:09.840 useful tech for things in manufacturing and like I said, 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:12.480 waste management or potentially in waste management. There are very 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:16.320 few plasma waste converter facilities out there. There are only 0:22:16.800 --> 0:22:18.919 only a couple in the United States, and there are 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:22.080 a few in Japan and uh, and that's about it. 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:26.280 But but they have the potential to really change the 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:29.600 way we deal with waste. I mean they could they 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:33.879 could actually help reduce landfills because most of them have 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:36.240 capacity so great that they would be able to serve 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:38.960 not just the community on a daily basis, but also 0:22:39.080 --> 0:22:42.879 take uh garbage that has already been dumped in the 0:22:42.960 --> 0:22:46.400 landfill and start using that as well. So every day 0:22:46.440 --> 0:22:47.919 it would be using a little bit more of the 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:50.119 landfill as well as taking care of all the daily 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:54.520 trash that was generated by the population, plus possibly creating 0:22:54.720 --> 0:22:59.480 energy as a result through uh, through using fuel. Um, 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:04.240 you know, it's a it's an attractive prospect, but it 0:23:04.280 --> 0:23:08.920 also requires quite a bit of an initial investment. So anyway, 0:23:09.560 --> 0:23:13.600 this was going to be a short episode, So hey guys, UH, 0:23:14.600 --> 0:23:17.760 you're welcome, because a lot of ours have have topped 0:23:17.840 --> 0:23:19.680 over forty five minutes and a few of them have 0:23:19.920 --> 0:23:22.399 hit that one hour mark, so you guys are getting 0:23:22.400 --> 0:23:24.720 off easy today. But that was a great topic. It 0:23:24.760 --> 0:23:28.840 was very interesting for us to research. And uh, it's 0:23:29.080 --> 0:23:33.040 plasma is just cool, not literally it's actually really super hot, 0:23:33.880 --> 0:23:37.800 but I mean just checking it's neat. Yes, nifty if 0:23:37.800 --> 0:23:41.280 you will. So, Guys, if you have any requests for 0:23:41.480 --> 0:23:44.400 topics that you would like us to tackle, let us 0:23:44.440 --> 0:23:47.280 know on Facebook or Twitter. Are handled. There is text 0:23:47.280 --> 0:23:50.440 stuff H s W or send us an email our 0:23:50.480 --> 0:23:54.280 addresses tech stuff at Discovery dot com and Chris and 0:23:54.320 --> 0:24:00.960 I will talk to you again really soon. Brought to 0:24:01.000 --> 0:24:04.119 you by the Reinvented two thousand twelve Camri. It's ready, 0:24:04.280 --> 0:24:04.639 are you