Session GP1 - Poster Session IV.
POSTER session, Tuesday afternoon, October 30
Exhibit Hall B,
Over the last three the Los Angeles Physics Teachers Alliance Group (LAPTAG) has built a plasma device and designed experiments for high school students to learn about plasma properties and behavior. One of the first experiments performed by small student groups (two to three students at a time) is to create ion acoustic wave tonebursts in an Argon plasma, measure the wavelength and frequency of the wave and thereby calculate the velocity of the wave. A grid antenna immersed in the plasma, which is pulsed by a function generator, creates the waves. Measurements are made using a Langmuir probe and read out on a digital oscilloscope. From this information students calculate values such as the temperature of the plasma, the plasma density and percent ionization of the plasma. In order to do these experiments students must understand what plasma is, how plasma can be created using a helicon source, how to use an oscilloscope and many other aspects of the plasma chamber involved in the experiment. Other experiments are currently being done on the device and still others are being designed. For more information visit the LAPTAG website (http://coke.physics.ucla.edu/laptag).