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Plasma
What makes Plasma the fourth state of an element?
I will take a try on this as a state is just the form a material is in. Most well known are liquid gas and solid.
What happen to that same atom when it get all charged by by radiation or from magnetic fields? It is not the same any more it is none of the above at the place in time. It is denied my a means of energy forces usually defined in charge per volume.
It commonly occurs in space but we have learned to create it here. Solid particles are close together and is cool. Liquid heat is added and the molecules are father apart. Gas is hatter and even more space between particle an they are free to move about. Plasma they refer to the particles being far apart and have great freedom of moment at very high temperatures.
So in plasma it is the electron and ions running about not the whole molecule. If ti is cooled I understand the original substance is reformed. So in plasma we have heat and electrical charges or currents.
As long as you can recreate the original substance then it is just a change in matter not a change in element. Thus plasma is the fourth sate of matter.
I admit that I only have a utterance of basic understanding of this but that is what I recall.