Pinch (plasma Physics)
A pinch is the compression of an electrically conducting filament by magnetic forces. The conductor is usually a plasma, but could also be a solid or liquid metal. In a z-pinch, the current is axial (in the z direction in a cylindrical coordinate system) and the magnetic field azimuthal; in a theta-pinch, the current is azimuthal (in the theta direction in cylindrical coordinates) and the magnetic field is axial. The phenomenon may also be referred to as a "Bennett pinch" (after Willard Harrison Bennett), "electromagnetic pinch", "magnetic pinch", "pinch effect" or "plasma pinch".
Pinches occur naturally in electrical discharges such as lightning bolts, the aurora, current sheets, and solar flares. They are also produced in the laboratory, primarily for research into fusion power, but also by hobbyists (crushing aluminium cans).
Read more about Pinch (plasma Physics): Pinch Production and Types, History, Crushing Cans With The Pinch Effect, Depictions
Famous quotes containing the word pinch:
“Vanity, or to call it by a gentler name, the desire of admiration and applause, is, perhaps, the most universal principle of human actions.... Where that desire is wanting, we are apt to be indifferent, listless, indolent, and inert.... I will own to you, under the secrecy of confession, that my vanity has very often made me take great pains to make many a woman in love with me, if I could, for whose person I would not have given a pinch of snuff.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)