
Before you use any of these methods, however, you need a bit of preparation. Don't worry - there's another way that works just as good. Let's get to the fun.įirst, I'll offer this warning - If you have bad teeth (loose ones, rotten ones, cavities, fillings, caps, etc.) try not to chew on those teeth.

I like to see any pictures that y'all take. Another reason my camera might not be picking up the flash is because the light given off is a type my camera doesn't pick up. Since I do not have that kind of technology, I was forced to use images off of the web.
#Which lifesavers spark in the dark iso
Another person who captured the flash had to use ISO 3200 film to capture it. Though in the last paragraph I said that the flash was a lot brighter due to the oil of wintergreen, the flash was still too quick and small for me to capture on film or video. Blue is a highly visible color in our spectrum, which means that the light generated will be a lot brighter. The oil of wintergreen, when mixed with the sugar, will absorb the light put off by the sugar, which then is put off by the electrons as blue light. This chemical has a few names, such as methyl salicylate, but it is generally know by it's more common name, oil of wintergreen. By adding a certain chemical, C 8H 8O 3, which is 8 parts Carbon, 8 parts Hydrogen, and only 3 parts Oxygen. By itself it is possible for triboluminescence to occur, but the sparks will be tiny and only slightly visible. Triboluminescence was first reported in 1620 by Francis Bacon, who wrote: "It is well known that all sugar, whether candied or plain, if it be hard, will sparkle when broken or scraped in the dark." Sucrose, or sugar, is a crystal. There are many ways to create triboluminescence, but we will focus on one of the easier and more productive and fun ways. This is the same thing that happens when you see lightning, so triboluminescence is basically extremely small lightning. The light we see is the energy from the friction occurring on the crystal being absorbed by the electrons in the atoms, which is then put off as light. Triboluminescence occurs whenever asymmetrical bonds in a crystal are scratched or rubbed. The word Triboluminescence comes from the Greek word tribein, which means to rub, and the Latin word lumen, which means light. Sign up here for our daily Thrillist email, and get your fix of the best in food/drink/fun.Below is a bit of history scraped from a few sites. However, wintergreen flavoring, as highlighted by Cool Science, "is a natural fluorescent dye called methyl salicylate." It creates a brighter, longer-lasting flash of light after absorbing ultraviolet light and re-emitting it in a way you can see. When this happens with most sugars, the light is largely ultraviolet, which you aren't able to see with a naked eye. (You might remember this if you're a Peanuts fan because Marcie totally explained the hell out of triboluminescence once.) As the energy is transferred to the nitrogen, excess energy is released as light.

The stray electrons collide with nitrogen in the air. When you bite into any candy made with real sugar, the crystalline sugar molecules have electrons ripped away from the nucleus as the sugar crystals are broken apart by your teeth. While it feels like magic, it's actually something called triboluminescence. The hosts smash Wint-O-Green Lifesavers with a hammer in front of a high-speed camera, giving you a close-up look at the blue lightning rippling across the candy as it shatters. Thanks to the Smarter Every Day YouTube channel, there's a slow-motion video of this reaction that will satisfy the curious child in you who probably bit candy in a dark bathroom mirror at some point. If you bite down on a wintergreen candy in the dark, you see a magical burst of blue light erupt from the candy. Anyone who has taken a bite of a wintergreen Lifesaver in the dark knows the legend of the blue lightning trapped inside is no schoolyard yarn.
