I am at the Palace of Discovery in Paris to do an experiment

我在巴黎的"發現宮"博物館

that beautifully demonstrates the answers.

參與了一個巧妙的實驗來找出答案。

Ok so we're turning on an electric field here

我們要讓這塊金屬板帶負電

and we see that the flame is spreading out.

在靜電感應的作用下

Thats very cute,

另一邊的金屬板將會帶正電

it's like a butterfly.

然後我們打開電源

And you can see that the flame

你可以看到火焰因為金屬板之間的電場而變形了

has two separate pieces to it now.

這電壓有幾伏特?

One is going towards the negative plate.

大概是...

Those would be the positive ions,

20,000 伏特

and the negative ions will be going towards a positively charged plate.

你有看到蝴蝶嗎?

So we see the flame kinda flattening out.

蝴蝶?

But if that didn't convince you

像蝴蝶，火焰這樣子動

that flame contains ions,

看起來就像像蝴蝶拍動翅膀

then check part two of our experiment

火焰就像蝴蝶，真可愛

where we compare the conductivity of a

火焰是一種電漿

flame to the connectivity of air,

也就是一團帶電離子

which is normally a pretty good insulator.

你可以看到火焰分離成兩部分

It requires about 10,000 volts

火焰中的負離子靠向正電極，正電離子則靠向負電極

to break down a centimeter of air.

所以火焰看起來被拉成扁平的

So right now this plate is is about 20,000 V.

如果這還不足以說服你火焰中含有帶電離子

You see that the spark is only little,

在第二部分的實驗中，我們將比較火焰和空氣的導電性

but if I put it around the flame,

一般來說，單純的空氣導電能力很差

we will see if we can get a bigger spark happen.

讓1公分寬的空氣通電，大概需要10000伏特

Look at that, yeaaa!

所以現在這組電極大概是10000伏特

Because the flame has those ions in it,

電弧看起來不大

that means that we can break down

但如果我們把火焰放在電極中間

a greater distance of air.

電弧就能變長許多

This greater conductivity.

你看看

It's awesome! You love doing this, right?

因為火焰中帶有離子

A strong enough electric field

離子提高了空氣的導電能力，所以我們能用相同的電壓，讓較長距離的空氣導電

can actually extinguish the flame

真是太有趣了，你也很愛玩這個對吧

but watch carefully what happens when the flame goes out.

是啊

Just like in the flame, the opposite charges in the smoke

夠強的電場甚至可以把火焰熄滅

are pulled in opposite directions.

仔細看看火焰熄滅的過程

Now while some may argue that a flame is not

你看

truly a plasma because it's not hot enough

煙裡有離子存在嗎?

and it doesn't have a high enough density of ions,

當然有

one thing is for sure, it does contain ions

就像火焰，煙裡正負相反的離子

which have important electrical properties,

也被電場拉向相反的方向

which can be demonstrated if you have a strong enough electric field.

有些人認為，煙不能算是電漿