Cheryl Schoolcraft, age 13, of South Charleston, West Virginia, for her question:
How can matter be changed to the fourth state?
Until the late 1950s, we were told that matter comes in three different forms, or states. The atoms from which nature builds the countless different substances in our world may form gases, liquids or solids. These, we were told, are the three states of matter. At that time, most people assumed that the vast reaches of space between the planets were empty. Then the first satellites went aloft and proved that space is filled with amazing stuff called plasma. This thin mixture of atomic fragments and dynamic energies was classed as a fourth state of matter.
In 1958, the International Geophysical Year swept the human mind beyond the limits of our home planet. Space probing satellites sampled the realms beyond the earth's atmosphere for the first time. Most people assumed that they would find nothing but a few meteors. A few suspected otherwise. They were proved to be correct but even they were astounded by the facts relayed back from Out There. We now know that space, at least between the planets, is stuffed with plasma. Experts suspect that this fantastic fourth state of matter also fills the vast reaches beyond the solar system and that the stars themselves are dense concentrations of plasma.
When we analyze the recipe for this cosmic state of matter, it is not hard to guess how it is formed. However, we need to stretch the imagination, because this substance is so unlike our everyday solids, liquids and gases. If our world were made entirely of interplanetary space plasma, it would weigh only about four pounds. In this fourth state of matter, the particles are infinitesimally small and widely separated. But most of them are electrically charged ions that create streaming electric currents and generate magnetic fields. Add to these energies the various radiations emitted by the stars, plus the webs of gravitational force that span the universe.
Now let's pause to contemplate the scope of the universe, the stupendous energies of the stars that span the light years of space. Our medium sized sun sheds enough radiation to support life on our planet and its stormy sunspots emit ions that bash into our atmosphere. Other stars emit more radiation and exploding stars shoot forth shells of dynamic gases on a cosmic scale. All stars contribute continuously to the plasma that most likely fills the vast reaches of space. Various, dynamic energies
How can matter be changed for Tuesday, June 15, 1971 act upon its thin, high speed particles, giving qualities that make plasma a fourth and very different state of matter.
On a small, earthly scale, we use plasma to shed fluorescent light. The hard job is reducing matter to almost nothing. This is done with gases, our thinnest state of matter. First the air, or almost all of it, is removed from the fluorescent light tube. Then a smidgeon of neon or some other gas with small atoms is sealed inside. The dynamic energies of space plasma are replaced by a jolt of everyday electric current. Plasmologists, who work with this fourth state of matter, dream of more fantastic uses for its energies. Someday perhaps we shall have plasma engines that yield 1000 times more energy than the usual fuels of today.