In school and in student days, they showed you various physical and chemical experiments, but do you know how to make crystals glow?
In this article, the author of the YouTube channel Igor Beletsky will show you this amazing effect and tell how it can be repeated inhome conditions.
Materials
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- Rafinated sugar.
Instruments, used by the author.
- Pliers.
Test process.
For example, when crystals are destroyed, a rather bright glow appears. In order to repeat this effect at home, ordinary natural quartz is ideal. For the highest quality experiment, its crystals should be transparent. They can be purchased for very little money.
Igor found a pair of such crystals. However, they should not be hit with faces against each other, the effect will be weak, and the crystals will quickly lose their appearance due to chips and cracks.
The best and most beautiful way to get this effect is to simply press the crystals against each other with flat faces, and sharply slide one along the other. Even with ordinary room lighting, this glow is already visible.
You might think that these are sparks, like those obtained from flint in a lighter. But this is not so, and in this way to get fire will not work. Igor slightly diminished the general lighting in the workshop, and now you can see how the crystal shone brightly. The phenomenon itself manifests itself in a few fractions of a second, and is more comparable to a flash.
In complete darkness, this effect is very difficult to film on the camera, and it does not convey all its beauty. The mechanism and physics of this phenomenon has not yet been established sufficiently accurately, but most often this effect is explained by the glow of many electrical discharges that arise when microscopic particles of a crystal are separated from it. Roughly speaking, this is the destruction of the surface of the crystal at the micro level.
Of course, not all of you will immediately find quartz crystals.The author suggests cracking with a sharp movement a regular piece of refined sugar. However, the brightness of the glow in this case will be very weak, and it can be observed only in complete darkness.
Also, the effect of triboluminescence occurs with a sharp separation of adhesive tape on the bobbin. Igor also explained that this could not be done in room conditions. The effect is manifested only in the vacuum chamber. However, in the comments to the video, there was a message that a blue glow was observed when unwinding the black fabric insulation tape.
Still on the Internet you can find photos of this effect when the blades rotate in dusty air. It appears from the contact of sand grains with lobes. It is called the Kopp-Atcells effect, in honor of the soldiers who died in Afghanistan.
In addition, it can sometimes occur even in ice crystals.
I thank Igor Beletsky for the story about a simple, but very interesting and beautiful effect!
Repeat and you this wonderful experiment at home, you can surprise not only children but also adults, because it really looks fantastic. It is also interesting, what will happen if one crystal is fixed on the motor shaft and pressed to another? Will the luminescence during friction of crystals from rotation be constant?
All good mood, good luck, and interesting ideas!
Author video can be found here.