Watch bands of light dance and react when the glass sphere is touched. It uses electrostatic discharge which takes place inside the glass ball. A classic novelty item. This 6 inch lamp with a 3.25 inch bulb requires four AA batteries. (not included). This is the smaller inexpensive version, a great teaching toy and really fun, my cats love it! This is the smaller inexpensive version, a great teaching toy and really fun, my cats love it!
Portable Plasma/Mini Plasma/Lumidisk
These all work on the following principle: A high voltage (low current) power source of about 50,000 volts excites the electrons in the PLASMA inside the glass sphere or disk. This high energy is enough to boost the electrons into higher orbits around the atoms of the gas. When the electrons drop back down to lower orbits they give off light in the form of photons. In the process, PLASMA is formed. PLASMA is the fourth state of matter (solid, liquid, gas, plasma). PLASMA is like liquid electricity. The streams of plasma emanate outward in the dazzling display you see. They travel randomly outward to the inside of the glass. If you put your finger or hand on the outside of the glass there will be an indirect path to ground (your body) induced. However, these toys are perfectly safe since glass is a great insulator. Electricity would rather flow through 1000 miles of copper wire than it would through 1 cm of glass.
APPLICATIONS
Stars
Plasma is the same stuff that stars are made of. Subsequently, there is more plasma than there is anything else in the Universe.
Lightning
Lightning bolts are also made of plasma; a superheated bolt of lightning contains about 1 Coulomb or 6,250,000,000,000,000,000 (6,25 Pentillion) electrons, yet you cannot see them since the electrons are "point particles" and thus have no apparent size.
