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A piezoelectric thought experiment

🕑 Added 2026-02-22 03:52:15 +0000 UTC

Comments

Ilya M.

The candy crush reminded me of glowing bandaid wrappers - https://youtu.be/DIILDg2d3Yk .

Dan Engler

At the risk of making you acquire even more mints you don't want, I'd suggest picking up some peppermint (sorry, Pep O Mint™) Life Savers as a control. They're opaque/white/chalky like the wintergreen ones, and presumably have a similar formula minus the methyl salicylate, whereas the fruit ones are translucent like regular hard candy. Are you sure the tablet isn't an Excedrin-style blend of Tylenol, Aspirin, and caffeine? Aspirin is salicylic acid (related to methyl salicylate) which, according to Wikipedia, also fluoresces.

Marc Fruchtman

The problem you are going to have is that the amount of actual mechanical pressure imparted to any size crystal you can carry will never be enough to do anything at 100DB. I don't think you can achieve what you want here without going into sci-fi levels. So for example, you could create an array of BBQ igniters strap them to the bottom of your shoes and hook them into a capacitor bank so that your caps charge over time while you dance and slam your feet to the music. Then finally when the caps are maxed out... that triggers the release. hehehe But otherwise... no.

Joziah J

Your curiosity and presentation of topics is always fascinating. I look forward to seeing what you work up. Unfortunately, I am not a physicist nor do I know the workings of piezoelectricity; the only knowledge I possess is that in my line of work, there exist piezoelectric tuning forks that are used to be submerged in a substance, and when done so, their resonant frequency changes, effectively working as a level switch. Maybe you’ll find that interesting ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Hendry

I'm only a fairy godmother distributer of candies I don't like, brushing my teeth has really ruined mints for me. Mint flavored things don't feel like food, like I shouldn't swallow them same as toothpaste.