Resonant magnetic perturbations

Imagine you have a toy car that you like to play with. When you push it forward, it moves in a straight line. But what if someone comes along and starts shaking the toy car? It might start to wobble and move around in a different way than before.

In the same way, scientists use something called resonant magnetic perturbations to shake up the plasma inside a fusion reactor. Plasma is a very hot and very thin gas that is made up of charged particles, and it's what fuels a fusion reaction. The perturbations are like tiny magnets that are carefully positioned around the reactor, and they create a magnetic field that can interact with the plasma.

This interaction causes the plasma to start moving around and wobbling like the toy car. But unlike the toy car, the plasma is able to "remember" the way it was before the perturbation, and it will try to go back to that state. This back-and-forth motion can help to keep the plasma in the reactor stable, which is very important for making fusion energy.

So, just like how shaking a toy car can make it move in a different way, resonant magnetic perturbations can help to control the plasma in a fusion reactor and keep it stable.