This is an e mail I didn’t get, but would answer as set forth below:
Dear Swivelchair,
I seem to turn people off with my boring conversation and bad breath. How can I be irresistibly charming and meet the person of my dreams?
/s/Lonely
Dear Lonely,
Here’s how to be irresistibly charming and meet the person of your dreams: Become conversant about luminescence (mechanoluminescence, also known as triboluminescence or fractoluminescence) from sugars.
First, on the way to a soirée this weekend, go get a pack of breath mints, Wint-o-green Life Savers® or minty Certs® . You know this one: Go in a dark closet with a new friend. Chew the Life Saver and you get sparks.
Although this has a childlike charm, the grown-up version adds . . . je ne sais quoi: Take a quick look at the references explaining this phenom (some are listed below). Now you can sound totally knowledgable and erudite –extemporize about acoustic cavitation or laser induced shock wave causing triboluminescence on amorphous sugars. Guaranteed to impress. Probably the person you are restraining in the closet with you won’t run away screaming or surreptitiously dial 9-1-1- on their cell. Plus your breath will smell better. Repeat as many times as necessary. (Try to wear a shirt without stains, first).
If you are going for the big splash, see also, “Gaseosa y certs,” demonstrating a “Mentos” effect.
Examining triboluminescence, better known as the Wint-O-Green Life Saver Effect, could provide scientists a way to better understand how things break.
Nathan C. Eddingsaas and Kenneth S. Suslick, “Intense Mechanoluminescence and Gas Phase Reactions from the Sonication of an Organic Slurry,” J. Am. Chem. Soc., 129 (21), 6718 -6719, 2007. 10.1021/ja0716498S0002-7863(07)01649-6
. . . We have produced mechanoluminescence via a new route, using acoustic cavitation. Upon sonication of slurries of resorcinol in long chain alkanes, intense mechanoluminescence is observed, up to 1000-fold increase in intensity over grinding. . . .
Eddingsaas NC, Suslick KS., “Mechanoluminescence: light from sonication of crystal slurries,” Nature. 2006 Nov 9;444(7116):163. doi:10.1038/444163a
. . . Here we elicit mechanoluminescence by a new means, acoustic cavitation, and find intense luminescence and emission lines that are not generated by other mechanisms such as grinding, cleaving, rubbing, scratching, biting or thermal shock.
Tsuboi Y, Seto T, Kitamura N, “Laser-induced shock wave can spark triboluminescence of amorphous sugars,” J Phys Chem A. 2008 Jul 24;112(29):6517-21. Epub 2008 Jun 27 10.1021/jp8002504
We investigated the triboluminescence (TL) of sugars using an innovative experimental approach: the laser-induced shock wave (LISW) technique. We found that the LISW could induce very bright TL in crystalline sugars, the intensity of which was shown to be 10(5) times higher than that obtained by conventional manual hand rubbing. We also applied the LISW technique to amorphous sugar samples. . . . we revealed that LISW could induce bright TL in amorphous sugars similar to that induced in crystalline sugars. . . .
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