How do mood rings work?
Mayo 5th, 2007
How do mood rings work? (from how stuff works website)
The idea behind the inner workings of a mood ring is simple: if you wear it on your finger its color will change to reflect the state of your emotions. The ring’s stone should be dark blue if you’re happy, and it supposedly turns black if you are anxious or stressed. While mood rings cannot are not an accurate scientific source of information about your mood, they actually are indicators of your body’s involuntary physical reaction to your emotional state.
The stone in a mood ring is either a hollow glass shell filled with thermo tropic liquid crystals, or a clear glass stone sitting on top of a thin sheet of liquid crystals. These liquid crystal molecules are very sensitive; they change position, or twist, according to changes in temperature. This change in molecular structure affects the wavelengths of light that are absorbed or reflected by the liquid crystals, resulting in an apparent change in the color of the stone. For example, as the temperature increases, the liquid crystal molecules twist slightly in one direction. This twist causes the liquid crystal substance to absorb more of the red and green portions of the visible light, and reflect the blue part. This causes the stone to appear dark blue. When the temperature decreases, the molecules begin to twist in the other direction, and reflect a different portion of the spectrum.
There is relation between your skin temperature and the color of the liquid crystal. When you are in a passionate mood, your skin is usually flushed. This is a physical reaction to an emotion, causing the capillaries to move closer to the surface of the skin and release heat. This brings about a slight change in the surface temperature of your body (your skin). When you are nervous or stressed, your skin may feel clammy. This physical reaction to your emotional state causes the capillaries to move deeper into your skin, causing the surface temperature to drop.
Mood rings can’t tell your emotional state with any degree of accuracy, but the crystals were calibrated with have a pleasing blue or green color at the average person’s normal resting peripheral temperature of 82°F (28°C). As peripheral body temperature increases, which it does in response to passion and happiness, the crystals twist to reflect blue. When you are excited or stressed, blood flow is directed away from the skin and more toward the internal organs, cooling the fingers, causing the crystals to twist the other direction, to reflect more yellow. In cold weather, or if the ring was damaged, the stone would be dark gray or black and unresponsive.
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Entry Filed under: Mood Rings
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