Mood ring

Mood Ring

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Mood ring

A mood ring is a ring which contains a thermochromic

Thermochromism

Thermochromism is the ability of substance to change color due to a change in temperature. A mood ring is an excellent example of this, but it has many other uses....
element, such as liquid crystal

Liquid crystal

Liquid crystals are Chemical substances that exhibit a phase that has properties between those of a conventional liquid, and those of a solid crystal....
. The ring changes color in response to the body temperature of its wearer. The color is said, by some proponents, to indicate the emotional state

Emotion

An emotion is a mental and physiological state associated with a wide variety of feelings, thoughts, and behavior.Emotions are subjective experiences, or experienced from an individual point of view....
of the wearer.

mood ring was invented in the late 1960s by Marvin Wernick when he accompanied a doctor friend to a nearby emergency.

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Encyclopedia

A mood ring is a ring which contains a thermochromic

Thermochromism

Liquid crystal

Emotion

History

The mood ring was invented in the late 1960s by Marvin Wernick when he accompanied a doctor friend to a nearby emergency. When the doctor pulled out a strip of thermotropic

Thermotropic

A liquid crystal is thermotropic if the order of its components is determined or changed by temperature.If temperature is too high, the rise in energy and therefore in motion of the components will induce a phase change: the LC will become an isotropic liquid....
material to gauge the child's temperature by applying the strip directly to his forehead, jewelry designer Wernick knew he had the makings of a winning item. Wernick encapsulated ovals of the material within clear glass cameos and glass domes set in brushed gold and silver ring settings. His signature "hang-tag" contained claims for the ring's properties.

Function

A mood ring is a specialized liquid crystal thermometer

Liquid crystal thermometer

A liquid crystal thermometer or plastic strip thermometer is a type of thermometer that contains heat-sensitive liquid crystals in a plastic strip that change color to indicate different temperatures....
, wearable on the finger. The ring is typically ornamented with a faux

Faux

Faux is a French language word for false or fake. It is often used in English phrases such as faux pearls, faux fur, faux pas and faux news....
gemstone

Gemstone

A gemstone or gem, also called a precious or semi-precious stone, is a piece of attractive mineral, which — when cut and polished — is used to make jewellery or other adornments....
(usually made of quartz

Quartz

Quartz is the most abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust . It is made up of a Crystal structure of silica tetrahedra. Quartz has a hardness of 7 on the Mohs scale and a density of 2.65 g/cm?....
or glass

Glass

Glass generally refers to a Hardness, brittle, transparency amorphous solid, such as that used for windows, many Glass Bottles, or eyewear, including, but not limited to, soda-lime glass, borosilicate glass, acrylic glass, sugar glass, Muscovite , or aluminium oxynitride....
) which is either a clear capsule filled with thermochromic liquid crystal

Liquid crystal

Liquid crystals are Chemical substances that exhibit a phase that has properties between those of a conventional liquid, and those of a solid crystal....
, or has a thin sheet of liquid crystal sealed underneath. Changes in temperature cause the crystal to reflect different wavelengths of light which changes the color of the stone. The liquid crystal used in mood rings is usually set up to display a "neutral" color at the average human skin temperature, which is approximately 91°F

Fahrenheit

Fahrenheit is a temperature scale named after the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit , who proposed it in 1724. Today, the scale has largely been replaced by the Celsius scale; it is still in use for non-scientific purposes in the United States and a few other countries such as Belize....
(33°C

Celsius

Celsius is a temperature scale that is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius , who developed a similar temperature scale two years before his death....
).

The theory behind the idea that the ring indicates the wearers' mood is based on a claim that body heat

Body Heat

Body Heat is a 1981 neo-noir film written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan. It stars William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Richard Crenna, Ted Danson, J.A....
fluctuates with the emotional state of the wearer. Human body temperatures are known to vary by small amounts (less than 1°C) over the circadian and menstrual cycles

Thermoregulation

Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its core temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different....
and when the body is fighting an infection. Variations in ambient air temperature appear to have a larger effect on the temperature of the ring than changes in the body temperature of the wearer. It appears that no direct correspondence between a particular mood and a specific color has ever been substantiated.