Detail Page
written by
Robert Baker, Walter Gekelman, Bill Layton, Richard Buck, and Joe Wise
This is the home page of LAPTAG, the Los Angeles Physics Teachers Alliance Group, which constructed the first high school plasma lab in the United States. Plasma, considered to be the fourth state of matter, is a highly ionized substance containing equal amounts of positive and negative charge. By mass and volume, it is the most plentiful phase of matter in the universe. The LAPTAG plasma laboratory, funded in part by the DOE, consists of a small ionizing device powered by a helicon source with Langmuir probes used to measure density and electron temperature. Click on the first link for the complete, cost-free lab manual on plasma physics for high school students. Detailed lecture notes offer guidance in explaining the processes that occur when charged particles become a plasma.
This resource is part of a Physics Front Topical Unit.
Topic: Particles and Interactions and the Standard Model
Unit Title: Matter and Interactions The LAPTAG plasma laboratory, funded in part by the DOE, is a high-school based project designed to make the study of plasma physics more accessible to secondary students. Click on the first link for the complete, cost-free lab manual. The next link provides detailed lecture notes explaining the processes that occur when charged particles become a plasma. Link to Unit:
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![]() <a href="https://www.compadre.org/precollege/items/detail.cfm?ID=5000">Baker, R, W. Gekelman, B. Layton, R. Buck, and J. Wise. LAPTAG: Los Angeles Physics Teachers Alliance Group. January 1, 2007.</a>
![]() R. Baker, W. Gekelman, B. Layton, R. Buck, and J. Wise, (1999), WWW Document, (http://plasmalab.pbworks.com/w/page/17178363/UCLA%20High%20School%20Plasma%20Lab).
![]() R. Baker, W. Gekelman, B. Layton, R. Buck, and J. Wise, LAPTAG: Los Angeles Physics Teachers Alliance Group (1999), <http://plasmalab.pbworks.com/w/page/17178363/UCLA%20High%20School%20Plasma%20Lab>.
![]() Baker, R., Gekelman, W., Layton, B., Buck, R., & Wise, J. (2007, January 1). LAPTAG: Los Angeles Physics Teachers Alliance Group. Retrieved February 9, 2025, from http://plasmalab.pbworks.com/w/page/17178363/UCLA%20High%20School%20Plasma%20Lab
![]() Baker, R, W. Gekelman, B. Layton, R. Buck, and J. Wise. LAPTAG: Los Angeles Physics Teachers Alliance Group. January 1, 2007. http://plasmalab.pbworks.com/w/page/17178363/UCLA%20High%20School%20Plasma%20Lab (accessed 9 February 2025).
![]() Baker, Robert, Walter Gekelman, Bill Layton, Richard Buck, and Joe Wise. LAPTAG: Los Angeles Physics Teachers Alliance Group. 1999. 1 Jan. 2007. 9 Feb. 2025 <http://plasmalab.pbworks.com/w/page/17178363/UCLA%20High%20School%20Plasma%20Lab>.
![]() @misc{
Author = "Robert Baker and Walter Gekelman and Bill Layton and Richard Buck and Joe Wise",
Title = {LAPTAG: Los Angeles Physics Teachers Alliance Group},
Volume = {2025},
Number = {9 February 2025},
Month = {January 1, 2007},
Year = {1999}
}
![]() %A Robert Baker %A Walter Gekelman %A Bill Layton %A Richard Buck %A Joe Wise %T LAPTAG: Los Angeles Physics Teachers Alliance Group %D January 1, 2007 %U http://plasmalab.pbworks.com/w/page/17178363/UCLA%20High%20School%20Plasma%20Lab %O application/pdf ![]() %0 Electronic Source %A Baker, Robert %A Gekelman, Walter %A Layton, Bill %A Buck, Richard %A Wise, Joe %D January 1, 2007 %T LAPTAG: Los Angeles Physics Teachers Alliance Group %V 2025 %N 9 February 2025 %8 January 1, 2007 %9 application/pdf %U http://plasmalab.pbworks.com/w/page/17178363/UCLA%20High%20School%20Plasma%20Lab Disclaimer: ComPADRE offers citation styles as a guide only. We cannot offer interpretations about citations as this is an automated procedure. Please refer to the style manuals in the Citation Source Information area for clarifications.
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