Want to see lightning sparks inside your mouth? Of course, this isn’t life threatening. It’s actually a fun activity that may be performed by a child alone – or adults, too, if interested!
What you will need:
- A pack of Life Savers Wint-o-Green
- Dark Room
- Mirror
What to do:
Go inside a room, preferably at night. Turn the lights off and wait until your eyes adjust. Put Wint-o-Green inside your mouth. Bite the candy and see the little “lightnings” inside!
How is that possible?
Life Savers Wint-o-Green is a hard sugar-based candy. This type of candy creates small sparks when bitten. Most of the time, you won’t be able to notice it because the light is too faint to see. The occurrence is called triboluminescence.
“Triboluminiscence is an optical phenomenon in which light is generated through the breaking of chemical bonds in a material when it is pulled apart, ripped, scratched, crushed or rubbed.” – Wikipedia
During triboluminescence, chemical bond damage occurs wherein the electrons are forced out of the atomic fields. When they are out of the field, they bump with nitrogen molecules in the air. Energy is imparted by the electrons to the nitrogen, thus, causing light.
So why is triboluminescence very noticeable on the Life Savers Wint-o-Green pack if everything that is being ripped, rubbed, scratched, crushed and pulled apart leads to such manifestation?
Methyl salicylate, also known as oil of wintergreen, is present in the Life Savers candy. It is a fluorescent; therefore, it absorbs light of a shorter wavelength and emits it once again as light of a longer wavelength. During triboluminescence, excited nitrogen produces ultraviolet light which has a short wavelength, so when you crush the sugar-based candy, the methyl salicylate absorbs the ultraviolet light and creates a better and more visible spectrum, particularly a blue light.
The production of lighting in the sky is similar to concept of triboluminescence, however, on a much higher level.
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