An electric arc can melt calcium oxide.

An electric arc is an electrical breakdown of a gas which produces an ongoing plasma discharge, similar to the instant spark, resulting from a current flowing through normally nonconductive media such as air. A slightly archaic term is voltaic arc as used in the phrase "voltaic arc lamp". Calcium oxide melting File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Calcium oxide melting File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Calcium oxide (CaO), commonly known as lime, quicklime or burnt lime, is a widely used chemical compound. ... The term electrical breakdown has several similar but distinctly different meanings. ... The word plasma has a Greek root which means to be formed or molded (the word plastic shares this root). ... An electrostatic discharge (ESD) is an electric current driven by the excess electric charge stored on an insulating object. ... Look up Spark on Wiktionary, the free dictionary The word spark has several meanings: In electricity, spark usually refers to a momentary electrostatic discharge across a spark gap. ... Electrical conductance is the reciprocal of electrical resistance. ... Air is a name for the mixture of gases present in the Earths atmosphere. ...

The various shapes of electric arc are emergent properties of nonlinear patterns of current and electric field. The arc occurs in the gas-filled space between two conductive electrodes (often made of carbon) and it results in a very high temperature, capable of melting or vaporizing virtually anything. The Principle of Emergence Emergence is the process of complex pattern formation from simpler rules. ... In electricity, current refers to electric current, which is the flow of electric charge. ... In physics, an electric field or E-field is an effect produced by an electric charge that exerts a force on charged objects in its vicinity. ... Alternative meanings: There is also an Electric-type Pokémon named Electrode. ... General Name, Symbol, Number carbon, C, 6 Chemical series nonmetals Group, Period, Block 14, 2, p Appearance black (graphite) colorless (diamond) Atomic mass 12. ... Temperature is the physical property of a system which underlies the common notions of hot and cold; the material with the higher temperature is said to be hotter. ... Physics In physics, melting is the process of heating a solid substance to a point (called melting point) where it turns liquid. ... Evaporation is the process whereby atoms or molecules in a liquid state (or solid state if the substance sublimes) gain sufficient energy to enter the gaseous state. ...

On a commercial basis, electric arcs are used for welding, for electrical discharge machining, as an arc lamp in movie theater projectors or street lamps (historic), and to produce aluminum and sometimes steel using scrap. Calcium carbide is made in this way as it requires a large amount of energy to promote an endothermic reaction (at temperatures of 2500°C). Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by causing coalescence. ... Electrical discharge machining (or EDM) is a method of working extremely hard materials or materials that are difficult to machine cleanly using conventional methods. ... The 300,000-watt Plasma Arc Lamp in the Infrared Processing Center (IPC) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory An arc lamp is a device that produces light by the sparking (or arcing, from voltaic arc or electric arc) of a high current between two carbon rod electrodes. ... 35mm Zenith X4000H movie projector A movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying moving pictures by projecting them on a projection screen. ... A roadway light in front of a red sky at night A street light or street lamp, also known as a light standard or lamp standard, is a raised light on the edge of a road, turned on or lit at a certain time every night. ... Aluminum is a soft and lightweight metal with a dull silvery appearance, due to a thin layer of oxidation that forms quickly when it is exposed to air. ... The old steel cable of a colliery winding tower Steel is a metal alloy whose major component is iron, with carbon being the primary alloying material. ... A scrapyard Scrap is a term used to describe the recycling of metal. ... Chemical compound with the chemical formula CaC2. ... Endothermic can mean: Endothermic reaction, in chemistry, a type of process that absorbs heat molecularly which is not exothermic. ... A chemical reaction is a process involving one, two or more substances (called reactants), characterized by a chemical change and yielding one or more product(s) which are different from the reactants. ... The degree Celsius (°C or ℃ (Unicode 0x2103)) is a unit of temperature named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701–1744), who first proposed a similar system in 1742. ...

Low pressure electric arcs are used for lighting, e.g. fluorescent tubes, mercury and sodium street lamps, camera flash lamps, plasma displays, and neon signs. A compact fluorescent lamp with an integrated electronic ballast A fluorescent lamp is a type of lamp that uses electricity to excite mercury vapor in argon or neon gas, resulting in a plasma that produces short-wave ultraviolet light. ... A plasma display is an emissive flat panel display where light is created by phosphors excited by a plasma discharge between two flat panels of glass. ... Closeup of a neon tube. ...

See also

• Spark gap
• Vacuum arc

A spark plug. ... A vacuum arc arises when the surface of metal electrodes in contact with a good vacuum begin to emit electrons because of heating or through exceeding the metals Work function. ...

External links

• [1] Some more info about making electric arcs using a welder.
• Videos of 34,500 volt 3-phase "Jacobs Ladder" and HUGE unintentional 500,000 volt power arc