Next time you buy mints to freshen your breath, give yourself a fun little treat at the same time. When you bite into a Life Savers Wint-O-Green mint in the dark, sparks will fly. This happens because of the crystal structure of the sugar in the candy. Electrons fly from one side of the mint to the other. And when those electrons mix with nitrogen in the air, short-wave ultraviolet light is released.

The same thing occurs when you bite into other hard candies. But the flavoring in these Life Savers – wintergreen oil – happens to be fluorescent. And because of that, it absorbs the short-wave ultraviolet light and emits it as longer-wave visible blue light.

(Source: scienceline.org)
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 5:10 am and is filed under It's Good/Fun to Know .