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In article <74055@apple.Apple.COM>, slovick@Apple.COM (Linda Slovick) writes...
> 
>While watching my campfire as it burned down to coals, I got to
>wondering about plasma.

I'm going to answer your questions, but not in the order you posted them.

>7.) Just what IS plasma, anyway? I remember from physics class
>many (MANY!) years ago that plasma is supposed to be the fourth
>state of matter, and have the vague general idea that it's
>supposed to be a sort of superhot gas, but just what makes it a
>whole different state?

Plasma is a gas of ionized atoms.  That's all.  It's what you get when you
heat a gas enough that the kinetic energy of the atoms is enough that 
when they happen to collide, electrons get knocked out of their orbits.
You can also make it by applying a strong electric field to rip the 
electrons off their atoms, as in a spark.

>4.) Is plasma somehow associated with ionization?

You can answer this one now, yourself.

>2.) Is a flame a plasma?

Yes. 

>1.) Do campfire coals get hot enough that the "gas" coming off
>of them is really a plasma, or is it still just a gas?

Yes.

>3.) Is there some hidden heat associated with the state
>transition between a gas and a plasma like there is between the
>other states?

Yes.  The energy of ionization, i.e., the tens of eV it takes to
remove each electron from it's atom.  

>6.) Does a working florescent light contain a plasma? 

Yes again.

>5.) I have played with one of those little Radio Shack plasma
>ball toys, but am still pretty hazy about what it's doing.  It
>also doesn't seem to get at all hot, so is plasma always
>associated with high temperature?  If so, is there just too
>little stuff in the plasma ball toy for high temperature to give
>off much heat?

I think so.  The plasma channels in the gas are most certainly
hot, but probably the gas is too rarified to heat the plastic shell
enough to burn you.

-Scott

P.S. I love my IIci.  You guys make a terrific product.  
--------------------
Scott I. Chase			"It is not a simple life to be a single cell,
SICHASE@CSA2.LBL.GOV		 although I have no right to say so, having
				 been a single cell so long ago myself that I 
				 have no memory at all of that stage of my 
				 life." - Lewis Thomas