By: Emily Francis and Farhat Hossain
When something is smashed or torn, light is emitted.This form of luminescence can be described as "cold light" as a low amount of heat is generated. This is called triboluminescence, and this is what 
causes hard based sugar candies to emit a certain degree of light. However most of the time is not very noticeable because it is very faint. This process is similar to the one that produces lightening. The reason this happens with hard based sugar candies is that when the crystalline sugars are crushed, they release some electrons from their normal orbital. These electrons colide into nitrogen molecules in the air, giving the nitrogen energy. The excited nitrogens release this energy in the form of light. Most of the light is ultra violet, with some visable light.
Wint O green Lifesavers have a brighter glow when cracked because they contain Methyl Salicylate, which is flourescent. Flourescent means that it absorbs the ultrat violet light given off by the nitrigens and re-emmits it at a lower wavelength, and therefore visable light to our eyes. If the life saver is wet with saliva, however, one does not see the sparks of light. This is because the saliva neutralizes the candy and prevents the electrons from "jumping" amd coliding into nitrogen molecules.
Some substances that exhibit Triboluminescence are quartz, diamonds, and some adhesive tape.
Sources:
http://myweb.lmu.edu/jphillips/201_F02/week1/fri1.html
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/question505.htm
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/T/triboluminescence.html
Comments (4)
abrown said
at 10:11 am on Nov 17, 2010
Could this natural phenomenon have a practical applilaction to real world situations. Perhaps maybe a new kind light source could be created or maybe a lifesaver firework. I have yet to find any such applications while researching.
gbell said
at 6:06 pm on Nov 30, 2010
this is really cool. It reminds me of black body radiations though i doubt it has any actual connection. In terms of real world applications i doubt there are any apart from cool party trick or little pranks. Seeing as humans are very good at making light sources already, you can see the lights of the world from space, it seems unlikely that we need another way to create light
chunt said
at 8:12 pm on Dec 1, 2010
Its quite amazing all the diffrent ways to make light. I'm just curious as to why its called 'life-savers'. I agree there isnt much practical use form this but you did say 'This process is similar to the one that produces lightening' scientist probaly have already figured out how to recreate lighting but maybe this can be used to help research things, like lightening.
mdabrowski said
at 7:34 pm on Dec 9, 2010
For me this kind of shows how we just keep discovering new things, and are able to explain them better and better. Little discoveries like this one, are, what sometimes leads to uncovering whole new useful concepts and materials, even if they where already there in front of us or in everyday life. A good example is graphene, that was discovered by someone playing with scotch tape and a piece of 'pencil lead' (graphite) but may prove to be very useful in future technology. In my opinion these little cool discoveries are great, even if some are not very useful (or at least don't seem useful yet), because they show us how little we know, and how fast we are learning, and these little discoveries can lead to great new things. :)
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