Triboluminescence

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In this activity, learners discover what happens when they crush wintergreen-flavored candies in a very dark room. Use this activity to demonstrate how a material's crystal structure affects its properties and behavior. [Activity is publicly available through a web crawler capture on Archive.org.]

Quick Guide

Preparation Time:
Under 5 minutes
Learning Time:
Under 5 minutes
Estimated Materials Cost:
$1 - $5 per group of students
Age Range:
Ages 8 - 14
Resource Types:
Activity, Demonstration
Language:
English

Materials List (per group of students)

  • Wintergreen mint candies
  • Pliers or some other safe method of breaking the mints (you can even crush them with your teeth!)
  • A very dark room

Keywords

Subjects

  • Engineering and Technology
    • Engineering
      • Metallurgy and Materials Engineering
  • Physical Sciences
    • Electricity and Magnetism
      • Electric Charges and Currents
    • Vibration and Waves
      • Light and Optics
    • Light and Optics
      • Electromagnetic Spectrum
    • States of Matter
      • Solids
    • Structure and Properties of Matter
      • Atomic Structure

Informal Categories

  • Food and Cooking

Audience

To use this activity, learners need to:

  • see
  • see color
  • touch

Learning styles supported:

  • Involves hands-on or lab activities

Other

Access Rights:

  • Free access

By:

Rights:

  • All rights reserved, Discovery Education, 2008

Funding Source:

  • 3M