bechtelfundofplasma

Bellan, Paul M. //Fundamentals of Plasma Physics//. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2008. Scribd. Web. 3 May 2011. .  **  Where does the author work, what else has s/he written about, and what are her/his credentials? **  The author of this book, Paul Bellan, is currently a professor and the head of his own plasma research group at Caltech. In addition to this book, he has written a monograph titled // Spheromaks //. He received his B.S. from the University of Manitoba in 1970, his M.A. from Princeton University in 1972, and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1975. His expertise is in plasma physics relevant to magnetic confinement fusion, astrophysical jets, solar corona, and earth’s magnetosphere. **  What is the main topic or argument of the text? ** This book goes through an in depth scientific description of plasmas and how they can be modeled and understood. The majority of this book is way beyond the scope of this class and the only section I am primarily interested in is the history of plasma physics near the beginning of the book. Plasma research began in the 1920’s and 1930’s and the first large scale magnetic confinement fusion experiments started in the 1950’s in the US, Britain, and the Soviet Union simultaneously. Other plasma uses and research include: inertial confinement plasma, space plasma (from stars, active galactic nuclei, and black holes), ionosphere and aurora plasma, plasma processing, dusty plasma, non-neutral plasma, arcs, plasma torches, and laser plasma. One of the most common forms of plasma is lightning. **  Describe at least three ways that the main topic or argument is fleshed out. ** The topic which I am concerned with can be found by looking it up in the table of context or searching though the section titles. The main ideas of this section can be fleshed out by reading the first sentences of each paragraph. **  What three quotes capture the critical import of the text? ** “this work was an offshoot of their-mononuclear weapon research, it was initially classiﬁed but because of scant progress in each country’s effort and the realization that controlled fusion research was unlikely to be of military value, all three countries declassiﬁed their efforts in 1958 and have cooperated since.” “By the 1970’sand 80’s many tokamaks with progressively improved performance were constructed and at the end of the 20th century fusion break-even had nearly been achieved in tokamaks.” “Since the 1960’s an important effort has been directed towards using plasmas for space propulsion. …Plasma thrusters are now in use on some spacecraft and are under serious consideration for new and more ambitious spacecraft designs.” **  Explain how the argument and evidence in the text supports your research focus. ** The evidence in this text supports my research focus because it provides the historical background for the oil alternative I am focusing on. I details many of the key aspects in the development of this potential energy source.
 * Full citation. **