4.11.2011

strange lights in the dark.



Today, I noticed a strange phenomenon.  In a darkened portion of the boat, as I pulled a strip of peel ply away, I noticed that a blue-purple light emanated from the separation point.

Since my brother has a masters degree  in organic chemistry, I have asked him to post a comment as to why this happens. click on the comment section below this post.

My guess is that it is similar to what causes this:  try it........

If you are living the American lifestyle, go outside and look under the passenger side floorboard of the car that you drive the most.  Pick up all the loose change that you find.  Tell your wife, girlfriend, boyfriend or partner that you have an important errand to run.  ( if you are single, no need to tell anybody anything).  Drive to the closest all night grocery store and buy yourself a roll of wintergreen lifesavers.  While you are there, stop by  the flower section and also buy a small bunch of flowers.  This will increase the possibility that you will not be alone when you finish your boat. If you are also fortunate enough to have teeth, at night, go to the bathroom mirror.  If you have been affected by the recession and find yourself without a bathroom mirror, you are not alone. If you are living on the streets, you are also not alone. Regardless, at night, go find a side mirror of a large automobile. Take this opportunity to look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself that you ARE a good person and that you CAN finish a boat.  Look at the inside of your mouth and with your back teeth, bite down hard on the life saver.  You will see a bright flash of light.  Do not let this frighten you. 


3 comments:

Unknown said...

yep - triboluminescence! Turns out lots of stuff does it. There are a couple of different theories about the details of what's going on, but basically, the mechanism seems to be that mechanical disruption of triboluminescent material causes a temporary charge separation to occur, and the recombining of the separated charges either (a) releases photons directly, or (b) ionizes the air, which in turn releases photons. So, yeah, wint-o-green lifesavers, scotch tape, and apparently epoxy/peel-ply! That's certainly worth going to grad school to learn...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XViCOAu6UC0

CrashGybe 22 said...

You should try pulling peel ply from Carbon on a dry day! It creates sufficient electrical charge to spark and I estimate that it would be in the order of 1000 Volts and a lot of current.

Unknown said...

I like the xray tape concept, just don't stand next to it for too long
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r63e5y3Z3R8