posted May 05, 2005 09:49 PM
FYI:Try this yourself. Stand in the dark in front of a mirror. Put a WintOGreen Lifesaver in your mouth. (It has to
be a fresh one; if it is soggy you get no sparks.) Crunch down hard on the Llifesaver and bingo -- sparks!
Bluish sparks will burst from your mouth. It's a fabulous sweet spark. Tiny but impressive.
Why does this happen? It's called triboluminescence. That's what happens when crystals fracture.
Triboluminescence is the light that is the result of crystals crushing or tearing.
Here's what happens.
Everything around us is made up of atoms like carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen. The
atoms are made up of tiny particles -- electrons, protons and neutrons. Atoms cluster together in groups
called molecules. When you crunch the sugar crystals, electrons break loose and zip around. Invisible
nitrogenmolecules that are in the air can detect an opening where the electrons have broken free, and
zoom into that spot. All this happens very fast. The electrons that broke off the sugar crystals in the first
place decide they want to return to the fold, but since the nitrogen molecules are already there, the
electrons crash into the nitrogen. They re-combine with a bang. And that crashing together results in
light -- in fact, in ultraviolet radiation. It's totally safe; you can't get a sunburn from this tiny spark. But it is
impressive.
Add the fact that this ultraviolet radiation has hit the wintergreen flavouring (which is called
methyl salicylate) and you get the bluish tinge to the glow. You can actually get almost all crystal sugar
candy to give you a bit of light when it is crushed. This was first noticed in Italy in the seventeenth
century. But for most crystal candy it is a rather dim light. It takes wintergreen to really light up your life.
It's probably much more scientific than you need to know -- but now you do. The important thing is that
it's fun. And it is a good party trick too -- just don't break your teeth!
--http://www.dearanswerlady.com/html/lifes.html--
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"The dream was always running ahead of me. To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it, that was the miracle." Anais Nin