In reply to Eric Walker's message of Mon, 12 Oct 2015 12:13:40 -0500: Hi, [snip] >One thought here is that the prompt alpha particles partially ionized >the noble gasses, and that the excited electrons relaxed back into >levels above the ground state, causing the size of the atoms to be >larger.
You don't need to make them larger to get an increase in pressure. The mere act of ionizing them will do the trick. Remove an electron from an atom, and you suddenly have two particle where you originally only had one. When the plasma recombines, the pressure drops again. The real question is where did the energy come from to create the plasma? [snip] Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
