Lesson plan
Plasmatronics
Plasmatronics is a company, founded by former Air Force Weapons Laboratory (now Phillips Laboratory) scientist Dr. Alan E. Hill, which produced a plasma speaker design. This was first demonstrated at the 1978 Winter Consumer Electronics Show. The product used a conventional dynamic loudspeaker with an integrated amplifier for low frequencies. For a tweeter it used a plasma speaker as a near-massless driver. Uniquely, to prevent ozone and NOx emissions it sourced helium from a tank in the back of the unit. While praised for accurate sound reproduction at demonstrations, the system had a number of disadvantages, including high cost and periodic handling of heavy compressed helium cylinders.
Article summary
Plasmatronics is a company, founded by former Air Force Weapons Laboratory (now Phillips Laboratory) scientist Dr. Alan E. Hill, which produced a plasma speaker design. This was first demonstrated at the 1978 Winter Consumer Electronics Show. The product used a conventional dynamic loudspeaker with an integrated amplifier for low frequencies. For a tweeter it used a plasma speaker as a near-massless driver. Uniquely, to prevent ozone and NOx emissions it sourced helium from a tank in the back of the unit. While praised for accurate sound reproduction at demonstrations, the system had a number of disadvantages, including high cost and periodic handling of heavy compressed helium cylinders.
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.