Speaker 1: Audible dot com is the leading provider of downloadable digital
Speaker 1: audio books and spoken word entertainment. Audible has over one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand titles to choose from to be downloaded to
Speaker 1: your iPod or MP three player. Go to audible podcast
Speaker 1: dot com slash brain stuff to get a free audio
Speaker 1: book download of your choice when you sign up today.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff from hastaff marks dot com where smart happens.
Speaker 1: I am Marshall Brain with today's question, how do mood
Speaker 1: rings work? Mood rings were first seen as an extremely
Speaker 1: popular fat in the late nineteen seventies, and they resurface regularly.
Speaker 1: The idea behind a mood ring is simple, wear it
Speaker 1: on your finger and it will reflect the state of
Speaker 1: your emotions. The ring stone should be a dark blue
Speaker 1: if you're happy, and it supposedly turns black if you're
Speaker 1: anxious or stressed. While mood rings cannot reflect your mood
Speaker 1: with any real scientific accuracy, they actually are indicators of
Speaker 1: your body's involuntary physical reaction to your emotional state. Let's
Speaker 1: see how that works. The stone in a mood ring
Speaker 1: is either a hollow glass shell filled with a thermotropic
Speaker 1: liquid crystal solution or it's a clear glass stone sitting
Speaker 1: on top of a thin sheet of liquid crystals. These
Speaker 1: liquid crystal molecules are very sensitive. They change position or
Speaker 1: twist according to changes in temperature. This change in molecular
Speaker 1: structure affects the wavelengths of light that are absorbed or
Speaker 1: reflected by the liquid crystals, resulting in an apparent changing
Speaker 1: color of the stone. For example, as the temperature increases,
Speaker 1: the liquid crystal molecules twist slightly in one direction. This
Speaker 1: twist causes the liquid crystal substance to absorb more are
Speaker 1: the red and green portions of the visible light and
Speaker 1: reflect the blue part. This causes the stone to appear
Speaker 1: dark blue. When the temperature decreases, the molecules begin to
Speaker 1: twist in the other direction and reflect a different portion
Speaker 1: of the spectrum. The metal ring conducts heat from your
Speaker 1: finger to the liquid crystals in the stone. The color green,
Speaker 1: which signifies average on the mood Ring color scale, is
Speaker 1: calibrated to the surface temperature of a typical person about
Speaker 1: eighty two degrees fahrenheit or twenty eight degrees celsius. If
Speaker 1: your temperature varies far from that norm, then the liquid
Speaker 1: crystals in the stone alter enough to cause a change
Speaker 1: in the color reflected. If you take the mood ring off,
Speaker 1: it will normally change to black unless the ambient temperature
Speaker 1: in the room is eighty two degrees fahrenheit or higher.
Speaker 1: Here are the mood ring colors and the mood they represent.
Speaker 1: The colors are listed according to the change in temperature
Speaker 1: they represent, with dark blue being the warmest and black
Speaker 1: being the coolest. Dark blue means supposedly happy or romantic
Speaker 1: or passionate. Blue means calm or relaxed blue, green means
Speaker 1: somewhat relaxed. Green means normal or average. That's the skin
Speaker 1: temperature that a person would normally have. Amber means a
Speaker 1: little nervous or anxious, Gray means very nervous or anxious,
Speaker 1: and black means stressed, tensed, or feeling haired. If you
Speaker 1: take a moment to think about the moods represented by
Speaker 1: the colors, you'll see a definite correlation between your body's
Speaker 1: surface temperature and the color of the liquid crystal. When
Speaker 1: you're in a passionate mood, your skin is usually flushed.
Speaker 1: This is a physical reaction to an emotion, causing the
Speaker 1: capillaries to dilate and release heat. This brings about a
Speaker 1: slight change in the surface temperature of your body. When
Speaker 1: you're nervous or st us, your skin may feel clammy.
Speaker 1: This physical reaction to your emotional state causes the capillaries
Speaker 1: to constrict, causing the surface temperature of your skin to drop.
Speaker 1: Do you have any ideas or suggestions for this podcast?
Speaker 1: If so, please send me an email at podcast at
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. For more on this and
Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, go to how stuff works dot
Speaker 1: com and be sure to check out the brain stuff
Speaker 1: blog on the how stuff works dot com home page.
Speaker 1: Streaming TV shows and movies directly to your home is
Speaker 1: a breeze with Netflix. As a Netflix member, you can
Speaker 1: instantly watch TV and movies on your PC, mac, mobile device,
Speaker 1: or television. Get a free thirty day trial membership. Go
Speaker 1: to Netflix dot com slash stuff and sign up today.