From: Richard Logan <rlogan@space.honeywell.com>
Newsgroups: sci.physics.plasma
Subject: Re: The Meaning of Plasma
Organization: Honeywell Inc.


John W. McKelliget wrote:
>
> Can any of you linguists out there enlighten me as to the
> origin of the word plasma?
>
Irving langmuir coined the term in the 1920's when he was working at
General Electric (I think that's the right company). He was
investigating the sources of high frequency noise in discharge tubes
when he realized that an ionized gas could support oscillations in the
electron density. His original paper is quite beautiful and his work
should be read by anybody who wants to understand the origin of the
science.