I think this is a cool project, but yeah of course they're stretching the definition a little bit. "Backpack powered laminar flow propane torch" doesn't get you 12mil views on youtube.

I dunno, if Colin Furze did this with that kind of title, I suspect he wouldn't have aaaany trouble getting that much exposure without stretching the truth.

I had that thought as well, but TBH I don't know much about physics.

At 4000 degrees Fahrenheit, would the flame's fuel gasses technically be a plasma?

And if so, then what's the detail that made both of us think that what they built doesn't match our expectations? Maybe we assumed they'd say "flame" for this design, and only say "plasma" if it was a cold plasma?

If the gas is hot enough to be seen, its generally a plasma. Basically all fire is plasma.

This is absolutely false. Fire is NOT plasma. Also, CO2 doesn't start to dissociate until around 4000 F. Which means basically all the electrons are still bound to elements and the chemical bonds and not free as to a plasma.

I agree they are doing this, but you can more or less get a feel for how it looks tilted pretty close to the horizontal here:

https://youtu.be/xC6J4T_hUKg?t=702

I think the real problem is probably how it must look when you move the blade quickly. It's essentially just a hose, so the "beam" will be very loopy. As far as I can tell, they really avoid moving the beam in the video for this reason.

Yup, I’m sure they could have made a regular creme brûlée burner look like a viable lightsaber if they wanted to.

The handle and backpack looked really cool though!