Plasma Balls

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

I bought a 6" Plasma Ball yesterday and it's a great little gadget.
The thing is...there's this weird smell in the air (No, I haven't farted). What is this smell, and am I going to die as a result?

Edited by Dr Doofenshmirtz on Wednesday 29th December 22:30

[PLamborghini]

Yes, I'm afraid so. The smell is me, my bad

[Lord Flathead]

The smell is Ionisation and that is caused by massive amounts of negative ions. Too much can be dangerours but Im pretty sure you can't get harmed from a Plasma ball.

[Mars]

Does it smell the same as the back of an old CRT TV? If so, I believe you're smelling Ozone (it's only pre-flyback transformer TVs that actually create Ozone).

[Murdoc]

It's ozone, fatal in the right dose but you should be OK, I made a jacob's ladder that makes the room absolutely stink of ozone very quickly. As an aside, ozone actually cleans air and removes odours.

Edited by Murdoc on Wednesday 29th December 22:53

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

Mars said:

Does it smell the same as the back of an old CRT TV? If so, I believe you're smelling Ozone (it's only pre-flyback transformer TVs that actually create Ozone).

Yes! - that is the smell. Thought I recognised it.

[ShadownINja]

Strange. What kind of smell? And you could buy a de-ioniser I suppose!

[Flintstone]

Murdoc said:

...ozone actually cleans air and removed odours.

By cauterising your nostrils

[Pigeon]

Murdoc said:

I made a jacob's ladder that makes the room absolutely stink of ozone very quickly.

I made one of those once, then one of my pigeons decided to try and peck the spark...

[Cock Womble 7]

Early laser printers had ozone filters.

[dilbert]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXiOQCRiSp0

A proper Jacobs Ladder!

[Arif110]

Somebody please explain - fascinated!

Ozone is O3 (as in 'O2') - ionization occurs when an atom gains an electron (>> negative charge) - what's going on?

Can ionization create a whole new molecule?

[Pigeon]

"What's going on" is that people can't tell the difference between an ion and a molecule

[dilbert]

Pigeon said:

"What's going on" is that people can't tell the difference between an ion and a molecule

The real problem there, is that a molecule and an ion can be the same thing; it's just that a molecule is not always an ion.

Although, I think people call them ionic compounds!

Edited by dilbert on Friday 31st December 13:53

[Conian]

dilbert said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXiOQCRiSp0

A proper Jacobs Ladder!

do i switch lights off when i leave the room and buy low energy fridges so these bds can just go and waste what I've just saved, right that's it, i'm writing to Points of View..... oh why oh why oh why oh why....

[Major Fallout]

Get a cheep to run bulb/florescent tube, and hold it next to it.