Triboluminescence of Wintergreen Lifesaver Candies

Triboluminescence of Wintergreen Lifesaver Candies For several decades people have been playing in the dark with triboluminescence using wintergreen-flavored Lifesavers candy. The idea is to break the hard, donut-shaped candy in the dark. Usually, a person looks in a mirror or peers into a partners mouth while crunching the candy to see the resulting blue sparks. How to Make Candy Spark in the Dark wintergreen hard candies (e.g., Wint-o-Green Lifesaversteeth, hammer, or pliers You can use any of a number of hard candies to see triboluminescence, but the effect works best with wintergreen-flavored candy because wintergreen oil fluorescence enhances the light. Select a hard, white candy, as most clear hard candies do not work well.   To see the effect: Dry your mouth with a paper towel and crunch the candy with your teeth. Use a mirror to see light from your own mouth or else watch someone else chew candy in the dark.Place the candy on a hard surface and smash it with a hammer. You can also crush it beneath a clear plate of plastic.Crush the candy in the jaws of a pair of pliers You can capture the light using a cell phone that works well in low light or a camera on a tripod using a high ISO number. The video is probably easier than capturing a still shot. How Triboluminescence Works Triboluminescence is light produced while striking or rubbing two pieces of a special material together. It is basically light from friction, as the term comes from the Greek tribein, meaning to rub, and the Latin prefix lumin, meaning light. In general, luminescence occurs when energy is input into atoms from heat, friction, electricity, or other sources. The electrons in the atom absorb this energy. When the electrons return to their usual state, the energy is released in the form of light. The spectrum of the light produced from the triboluminescence of sugar (sucrose) is the same as the spectrum of lightning. Lightning originates from a flow of electrons passing through the air, exciting the electrons of nitrogen molecules (the primary component of air), which emit blue light as they release their energy. Triboluminescence of sugar can be thought of as lightning on a very small scale. When a sugar crystal is stressed, the positive and negative charges in the crystal are separated, generating an electric potential. When enough charge has accumulated, the electrons jump across a fracture in the crystal, colliding with ​exciting electrons in the nitrogen molecules. Most of the light emitted by the nitrogen in the air is ultraviolet, but a small fraction is in the visible region. To most people, the emission appears bluish-white, although some people discern a blue-green color (human color vision in the dark is not very good). The emission from wintergreen candy is much brighter than that of sucrose alone because wintergreen flavor (methyl salicylate) is fluorescent. Methyl salicylate absorbs ultraviolet light in the same spectral region as the lightning emissions generated by the sugar. The methyl salicylate electrons become excited and emit blue light. Much more of the wintergreen emission than the original sugar emission is in the visible region of the spectrum, so wintergreen light seems brighter than sucrose light. Triboluminescence is related to piezoelectricity. Piezoelectric materials generate an electrical voltage from the separation of positive and negative charges when they are squeezed or stretched. Piezoelectric materials generally have an asymmetric (irregular) shape. Sucrose molecules and crystals are asymmetric. An asymmetric molecule changes its ability to hold electrons when squeezed or stretched, thus altering its electric charge distribution. Asymmetric, piezoelectric materials are more likely to be triboluminescent than symmetric substances. However, about a third of known triboluminescent materials are not piezoelectric and some piezoelectric materials are not triboluminescent. Therefore, an additional characteristic must determine triboluminescence. Impurities, disorder, and defects are also common in triboluminescent materials. These irregularities, or localized asymmetries, also allow for an electrical charge to collect. The exact reasons why particular materials show tribol uminescence can be different for different materials, but it is probable that crystal structure and impurities are primary determinants of whether or not a material is triboluminescent. Wint-O-Green Lifesavers arent the only candies that exhibit triboluminescence. Regular sugar cubes will work, as will just about any opaque candy made with sugar (sucrose). Transparent candy or candy made using  artificial sweeteners  will not work. Most adhesive tapes also emit light when they have ripped away. Amblygonite, calcite, feldspar, fluorite, lepidolite, mica, pectolite, quartz, and sphalerite are all minerals known to exhibit triboluminescence when struck, rubbed, or scratched. Triboluminescence varies widely from one mineral sample to another, such that it might be unobservable. Sphalerite and quartz specimens that are translucent rather than transparent, with small fractures throughout the rock, are the most reliable. Ways to See Triboluminescence There are several ways to observe triboluminescence at home. As I have mentioned, if you have wintergreen-flavored Lifesavers handy, get in a very dark room and crush the candy with pliers or a mortar and pestle. Chewing the candy while watching yourself in a mirror will work, but the moisture from saliva will lessen or eliminate the effect. Rubbing two sugar cubes or pieces of quartz or rose quartz in the dark will also work. Scratching quartz with a steel pin may also demonstrate the effect. Also, sticking/unsticking most adhesive tapes will display triboluminescence. Uses of Triboluminescence For the most part, triboluminescence is an interesting effect with few practical applications. However, understanding its mechanisms may help explain other types of luminescence,  including bioluminescence  in bacteria and earthquake lights. Triboluminescent coatings could be used in remote sensing applications to signal mechanical failure. One reference states that research is underway to apply  triboluminescent flashes  to sense automobile crashes and inflate airbags.

House Republicans Move to Cut Federal Workforce

House Republicans Move to Cut Federal Workforce With their morale already about to bottom out, the nearly 3 million civilian employees of the federal government now face two Republican-backed bills that would eventually eliminate many of their jobs. Taking the Forced Attrition Approach First up to bat, Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming) introduced the Federal Workforce Reduction Through Attrition Act (H.R. 417), which Rep. Lummis says would reduce the federal workforce by 10% over the next 5 years â€Å"without forcing any current federal employees out of a job.† Instead, the bill would allow the federal agencies to hire only one employee for every three that retire or otherwise leave service, saving an estimated $35 billion over those 5 years, according to Lummis. Through attrition at that rate, the bill requires a net reduction of 10% or nearly 300,000 jobs from the federal civilian federal workforce by September 30, 2016.  The bill would not apply to Postal Service workers, who are not exactly government employees, anyway. â€Å"We’ve racked up over $18 trillion in debt simply because Washington has no idea when to stop spending,† said Rep. Lummis in a press release. â€Å"Attrition is a solution that requires the federal government to do what any business, state, or local government would do to cut costs limit new hires.† In addition, should even one agency fail to comply with the one-for-three attrition plan, the bill would slap that agency with an immediate total hiring freeze. â€Å"Instead of blindly filling empty desks, this bill forces agencies to take a step back, consider which positions are crucial, and make decisions based on necessity rather than luxury,† said Lummis, adding, â€Å"Real, productive job creation takes place on Main Street America, not in the bloated federal government.† Finally, concerned that the agencies would try to â€Å"backfill† their departing employees by simply hiring even more costly third-party contractors, Lummis’ bill requires the agencies to match their reductions in employees with cuts in their numbers of service contracts awarded. The last action on the  Federal Workforce Reduction Through Attrition Act  took place on Jan. 20, 2015, when it was sent to the  House Committee on Oversight and Government.   Defense Employees In the Crosshairs Meanwhile over at the Department of Defense (DOD), where morale is even lower, the almost 770,000 civilian employees will be watching the Rebalance for an Effective Defense Uniform and Civilian Employees (REDUCE) Act (H.R. 340), introduced by Rep. Ken Calvert (R-California). Rep. Calvert’s REDUCE Act would force the DOD to cuts its civilian workforce by a substantial 15% about 116,000 employees – by the year 2020 and keep it at or below that level until 2026. According to Rep. Calvert, the workforce cuts would essentially reverse the 15% growth of the civilian DOD workforce that has occurred since the 9/11 terror attacks. In his statement on the REDUCE Act, Rep. Calvert cites former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman as estimating that a 15% reduction in the DOD’s civilian workforce would save $82.5 billion over the first five years. â€Å"The continued growth in our civilian staff at the DOD comes at a time when we are reducing the number of active-duty military personnel something is clearly wrong with that equation,† Calvert said in a press release. â€Å"Simply put, if we fail to correct this trend our uniformed soldiers, not to mention American taxpayers, will suffer the consequences.† Perhaps even more menacing to DOD employees is that, unlike Rep. Lummis’ bill, which specifies attrition as the method, the REDUCE Act does not specify how the DOD is to cut its workforce.    Instead, the REDUCE Act requires only that the DOD find a way to â€Å"responsibly adjust† its number of civilian workers, leaving anything from attrition to â€Å"round them up and lay them off,† on the table. The bill would give the Secretary of Defense greater authority to consider job performance in personnel decisions and to use voluntary separation incentive payments and voluntary early retirement payments in order to achieve the required workforce cuts. â€Å"Our current and retired military leaders have widely acknowledged the need to establish a more efficient defense workforce in order to preserve our national security posture in the future,† said Rep. Calvert. â€Å"However, actions speak louder than words and I continue to believe Congress will ultimately have to force DOD’s hand to implement these necessary changes.† No further action on the REDUCE Act has taken place since Aug. 13, 2015, when it was referred to the House  Subcommittee on Readiness.   Federal Employee Unions Object Labor unions are designed to protect jobs, so as you might expect, federal-employee unions strongly oppose both of these bills. In a press release, American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) President J. David Cox said the size of the federal workforce as a percentage of the total U.S. workforce had already shrunk to a level unseen since the Eisenhower administration (1953 – 1961). Fearing the federal workforce will suffer a â€Å"death by a thousand cuts,† Cox said, â€Å"Federal employees protect Americans’ freedom to lead a decent private life without having to worry about basic necessities such as safe food and infrastructure.† â€Å"When anti-government lawmakers talk about cutting the already underfunded and understaffed federal workforce, it’s important to ask who they want to cut,† said Cox. â€Å"Do they want to get rid of employees who care for our veterans, inspect foods, keep air and water clean, forecast tornadoes, rescue victims of natural disasters, design safe roads and bridges, find a cure to deadly diseases, conduct research on energy efficiency, keep air travel safe, protect communities from criminals, analyze security and financial risks, advance science to drive further economic growth, protect people against discrimination in employment, ensure workplace safety and security, manage defense contracts worth billions of dollars, etc?†