Do You Know That Sugar Can Emit Thunder

Recently, Smarter Every Day channel posted a slow-motion video on YouTube with a high-speed camcorder recording the scene using a hammer to smash a mint candy. The results resulted in many people being surprised, there were light rays emitted from the candy when the hammer fell.

What phenomenon happened?

This phenomenon is called Triboluminescence. This is a phenomenon of luminescence by friction, which is the phenomenon of light emitted when the chemical bonds of the material are broken due to crushed, rubbed or scratched objects.

When the sugar is crushed, charged particles are separated, when the electric field accumulates large enough, the electrons will move between them. This phenomenon is like thunder that we still see in real life when there is a thunderstorm but at a very small scale.

Is any material luminescent?

The answer is no. Sugar in candies can, but normal diets or diameters do not, or maybe luminescence is too fuzzy we cannot see with the naked eye.