Do wintergreen Life Savers actually make a spark?

[ptex]

Is this true or some trick?http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=36675

 

[motai]

If they do, its making me reconsider ever biting into any piece of Life Savers candy (especially wintergreen).

 

[ptex]

Especially while pumping gas.

 

[enigma]

I didn't know this was news. My friends and I discovered it at camp over a decade ago. I guess we should have written a report and submitted it for national fame...

 

[ptex]

So its real?

 

[enigma]

Oh yeah. Try it yourself. Go into the bathroom. Put a lifesaver in your mouth. Turn the light off. Look in the mirror, and chew with your mouth open.

 

[LURCH]

As I understand it, the crystals in the Wint-o-Green LifeSavers ^TM discharge a piezoelectric spark. This in tern is amplified by interaction with the sugar molecules.

 

[wasteofo2]

I read about that and tried it last summer, nothing happened. Though I also read that if it weren't ridiculously dark and very dry it wouldn't work. Thoguh I don't see how external humidity would matter at all, since the second you put it in your mouth it gets really damn humid.

 

[NateTG]

You can also get the effect by opening some types of band-aid packages.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

As my poor mother will tell you, if you use a pair of plyers instead of biting the LS it is much easier to see. The down side: Our bathroom had Wintergreen LS pieces in every corner and crevice. Obviously this approach quickly lends itself to making as big a spark as possible using many lifesavers at once.

Sci Am had a write up on this years ago.