The Dancing Flame: A New Twist on an Old Classic
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Armando Bustos
[1]
;
Jaime de Urquijo Carmona
[1]
;
David Cabello
[1]
;
Olmo González-Magaña
[1]
;
Guillermo Bustos
[1]
-
[1] Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
México
-
- Localización: The Physics Teacher, ISSN 0031-921X, Vol. 62, Nº. 6, 2024, págs. 518-519
- Idioma: inglés
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
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Resumen
Lightning and fire are frequently used in the classroom as common examples of natural plasmas to entice college students into the plasma state. While lightning bears a direct relation to electricity and hence to charged particles, for the case of a flame, composed partially by electrons, ions, molecules in excited states, and neutral molecules, it may not be so evident. We may cite, for instance, the experiment reported by Gore,1 who used two Van de Graaff generators with a candle in between their domes to show the flame’s movement toward one side. Other experiments have been reported to show the effects of pressure waves on a flame.2–4 To shed more light on the effects of a candle exposed to an electric field, we present a novel, inexpensive experiment showing the candle flame moving under the action of a pulsed electric field.
