2006-09-24 07:48:07 · 6 answers · asked by bob l 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Plasma is superheated gas, with a temperature of millions of kelvins.
So the short answer is NO.
Longer answer:
Plasma is gas that has been heated to an extreme temperature. This is most common in stars, where the nuclear reactions generate an incredible amount of energy.
Three reasons why a human cannot breathe in plasma:
1) Too dense
the plasma found in stars is very dense, far denser than air, making it impossible for a human being to breathe.
2) Ionised
The radiant energy causes a plasma to be ionised. (In other words, there is enough radiant energy such that electrons are no longer associated with nuclei; it's like a dense soup of sub-atomic material.) Since this means that the oxygen molecules themselves would a) NOT be molecules; they would exist as monotomic oxygen ions due to the heat, and b) ionised, meaning that they would not be able to take place in the correct chemical reactions.
3) Too hot. As previously stated, plasma is super-heated gas, which has a temperature of millions of kelvin. A human being in a plasma would be dead in milliseconds (and vaporised entirely soon after that)... making breathing a little difficult.
So, to sum up, NO, humans can't breathe in plasma.
Oh, and in case you meant biological plasma, like in human blood, the answer is still no because it's a liquid. Can you breathe underwater? I think not.
2006-09-24 08:01:10 · answer #1 · answered by ? 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
By definition, a plasma state is achieved only when sufficient energy - usually through heat - is applied to a gas to break up the atomic structure into its consituent parts.
Even if you took oxygen and made it into a plasma, it would no longer technically *be* oxygen - rather, it would be the ionized parts of the oxygen atoms...and you can't breathe those (even if your body and lungs could take the heat).
If, on the other hand, you were asking if a human could still breathe if he or she was in a chamber in the presence of plasma, then the answer would still be no. Plasma, by its very nature, is so hot that it takes a magnetic bottle to contain it; anything physical which comes into contact with such a substance would immediately be ionized as well, becoming an addition to the plasma body.
2006-09-24 08:02:32 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. The oxygen atoms in a plasma are much hotter than the gasses in an ordinary fire. Breathing enough of them to provide sufficient oxygen would certainly result in lethal burns to the trachea and lungs.
2006-09-24 07:53:20 · answer #3 · answered by cosmo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, but only very limited amounts of it because plasma is very hot.
2006-09-24 07:55:02 · answer #4 · answered by bruinfan 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is found in the work named equations withconnected kernels for n - particle T operators
2006-09-24 07:50:32 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
no. it would be to hot and the ions present would kill us (including the oxygen)
2006-09-24 08:27:23 · answer #6 · answered by z 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋