Learning pages - Plasmas
Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 6:47 pm
I hope to create a little single page learning experience in a series of future posts in this forum based on the past back pages of "Electric Spacecraft Journal".
Back story: ESI, Electric Spaccraft Inc., was founded by Charles Yost in the 1980's to investigate the theory and possibilities of electric space propulsion. Charles owned a very successful foam making business in Western North Carolina, Dynamic Systems. He was a retired NASA engineer and amateur experimenter, like most of us. He started a quarterly journal, ESJ, Electric Spacecraft Journal. I made many pilgrimages to his establishment and had many articles published in the pages of the journal.
Charles and I came to be fast friends in the late 80's and early 90's. He respected me to the extent that upon his death, I became the titular head of ESI corporation and editor of ESJ in 2005 under a legal trust that he had established. Due to a number of unfortunate codiciles in the trust, ESI could not continue as a viable entity with me being an abscentee director, showing up at quarterly trust meetings and directing a small staff at range from Virginia. Thus, in about 2010, ESI and ESJ fell silent.
One of the most talented staff members was Leslee Kulba who had an M.S. or M.A. in mathematics and a B.S. in physics. A natural organizer and writer, she was a fabulous asset to the daily activities of ESI on site. She was respossible for much of the journal's assembly and appearance. One thing she instituted early on was the occasional "back page sage". These back cover pages were created as a quick rinse on major facts and information on a subject in physics.
Quick rinses in any subject, but especially the sciences, can often lead to wrong headed conclusions on the part of the truly uninformed who fail to study the quick rinse's subject in some greater depth. To others, these are handy compilations of facts and information for quick general reference. For this purpose, they were created.
The "back page sage" I intend to share is on Plasmas. It comes from ESJ issue #37, published March of 2004. Leslee created this one with oversight by Charles who loved to use his red pencil over her work. One error caught my eye, in retrospect, was the use of degree C for 1ev equivalent temperature/energy conversion. It should be just "Kelvins" or K and not degrees anything.
The word plasma is, in general, poorly understood in the fusor community and often misused, even by yours truly.
Here it is. I have photographed the back page in good resolution and present it in, I hope, a useable form. You may have to copy it and massage it a bit to your liking, but if you like what you see, it will be worth it. Let me know what you think.
If received well, I will continue in future without the long intorduction.
Note: 3/2020 Added an extra page on atmospheric pressures at altitudes and much more from another ESJ pack page.
Richard Hull
Back story: ESI, Electric Spaccraft Inc., was founded by Charles Yost in the 1980's to investigate the theory and possibilities of electric space propulsion. Charles owned a very successful foam making business in Western North Carolina, Dynamic Systems. He was a retired NASA engineer and amateur experimenter, like most of us. He started a quarterly journal, ESJ, Electric Spacecraft Journal. I made many pilgrimages to his establishment and had many articles published in the pages of the journal.
Charles and I came to be fast friends in the late 80's and early 90's. He respected me to the extent that upon his death, I became the titular head of ESI corporation and editor of ESJ in 2005 under a legal trust that he had established. Due to a number of unfortunate codiciles in the trust, ESI could not continue as a viable entity with me being an abscentee director, showing up at quarterly trust meetings and directing a small staff at range from Virginia. Thus, in about 2010, ESI and ESJ fell silent.
One of the most talented staff members was Leslee Kulba who had an M.S. or M.A. in mathematics and a B.S. in physics. A natural organizer and writer, she was a fabulous asset to the daily activities of ESI on site. She was respossible for much of the journal's assembly and appearance. One thing she instituted early on was the occasional "back page sage". These back cover pages were created as a quick rinse on major facts and information on a subject in physics.
Quick rinses in any subject, but especially the sciences, can often lead to wrong headed conclusions on the part of the truly uninformed who fail to study the quick rinse's subject in some greater depth. To others, these are handy compilations of facts and information for quick general reference. For this purpose, they were created.
The "back page sage" I intend to share is on Plasmas. It comes from ESJ issue #37, published March of 2004. Leslee created this one with oversight by Charles who loved to use his red pencil over her work. One error caught my eye, in retrospect, was the use of degree C for 1ev equivalent temperature/energy conversion. It should be just "Kelvins" or K and not degrees anything.
The word plasma is, in general, poorly understood in the fusor community and often misused, even by yours truly.
Here it is. I have photographed the back page in good resolution and present it in, I hope, a useable form. You may have to copy it and massage it a bit to your liking, but if you like what you see, it will be worth it. Let me know what you think.
If received well, I will continue in future without the long intorduction.
Note: 3/2020 Added an extra page on atmospheric pressures at altitudes and much more from another ESJ pack page.
Richard Hull