Watch This Mint Light Up Like Lightning After Being Smashed By A Hammer
Smashing up mints in a garage doesnt sound like much fun but this might just be the coolest thing youll see today.
Shot at a fantastically high frame rate, this video from YouTube channelSmarter Every Day 2 shows how crushing a Wint-O-Green Lifesaver mint with a hammer can produce an optical phenomenon known as triboluminescence. This roughly means friction-light and refers to the light that is generated due to the breaking of chemical bonds when materials are smashed, rubbed, or scratched.
It appears that triboluminescence is lightning on a very small scale, Linda M. Sweeting, a chemist at Towson University, explains in ablog post. When the sugar is cracked, electrical charge is separated, positive from negative, and when there is a big enough charge accumulation (electric field) the electrons jump through the air in the crack, colliding with and exciting the nitrogen molecules as they do.
She points out that we are still not sure why all materials are nottriboluminescent, as artificial sweeteners or transparent sugar candy appear not tot be,although it could be that our eyes just aren’t sensitive enough tosee it.
As many kids will tell you, you can try this for yourself by eating these particular mints in the dark. However, your view doesn’tget much clearer than a super slow-motion YouTube video.
[H/T Boing Boing]
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