THE STUDY OF WHICH COLOR GLOW STICK IS THE BRIGHTEST
Olivia Frazier
Cary Academy
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this experiment was to see which color glow stick was the brightest.
Light powers everything on earth and sometimes light comes in the littlest forms for
example a glow stick it produces light when chemicals mix inside it light can be as easy
as the more light there is the brighter something gets. The brightness of different colors
of glow sticks was measured in these experiments. In the experiments the brightest
glow stick over all was the green glow stick after it was put in hot water for fifteen
seconds. The green glow stick was the brightest because of the color of it and when
you see things glow in the dark it is usually green because of how bright it is when no
glowing.
INTRODUCTION
Light is an energy that powers all life on earth. The greatest form of light is the sun.
Without light plants couldn’t give off oxygen and without oxygen people couldn’t live on
earth. Light is a form of electromagnetic energy which is produced by atoms and
electrons. The electrons jump up and down and produce different radiation. The more
extra energy that is produced makes the electrons jump higher which gives off more
light. The light is called the photon. Light can also be made by wax or oil (candles).
The heat of the flames melts the wax which makes light. White light is made up of a
mixture of colors. White light also is made by three colors which is green, blue, and red.
When white light is shined on a colored object it absorbs all the colors except its own.
For example when light is shined on a red object it absorbs most of the light, not all of it
though. If white light is shined on a blue it reflects the most blue. That’s the same thing
with a yellow object. This only occurs with white light though. When looking at a car in
yellow light at night it is hard to tell what color the car is .The only car that looks the
same color is yellow cars.
Light contains electromagnet waves. Electromagnet waves are lines of magnetic force
that circle around and the charge is part of it too. The charge moves up and down
which causes the line of force to wiggle. The charge generates a magnetic field as it
moves which is called a small electric unit. At the same time the lines wiggle light
moves out. The more light that it has the more intense it is.
Figure 1- This shows how the electromagnet waves at work: the line in the middle is the charge and the lines going out are
the lines of force.
Glow sticks are amazing. Although glow sticks are amazing there is science to them.
The light on the inside is set off by chemical compounds. Compounds are substances
made up of different atoms of different elements. If 2 or more compounds are combined
the atoms rearrange to form a different compound which releases a different kind of
energy. In this case the energy is light. When phenyl oxalate and fluorescent dye
solution touch inside a glow stick the chemicals get “excited” and mix together once the
chemicals go back to their new spot the glow stick produces light. The reason why the
light keeps going on is once the chemicals mix they start mixing more and more and so
the glow stick keeps producing light. This process is called chemiluminesence. Before
breaking the glow stick the chemicals are in two different chambers. The two chambers
are covered in fragile glass that is able to break easily. Depending on the chemicals in
the glow stick affects how long the light will last.
Phenyl oxalate and fluorescent dye solution makes light without an electrical source.
When the glow stick is broken the chemicals mix. There is five parts to a glow stick.
The first part is the plastic casing the second part is the glass case over the solution
which is broken before the chemicals mix. The third part is the phenyl oxalate and
fluorescent dye solution which makes the light. The forth is the hydrogen peroxide
solution which it becomes when it mixes together. The fifth part is simple it is the when
the case is broken the liquids mix.
Figure 2- This shows what happens when the two liquids mix
Fluorescent dye is added to a glow stick to make it colorful. Red dye is made out of
Rhodamine B. Orange is made out of 5,12-bis(phenylethynyl)-naphthalene Rhodamine
6G. Yellow is made out of 1-chloro-9, 10-bis (phenylethynyl) anthracene
Rubrene. Green is made out of 9, 10-bis (phenylethynyl) anthracene, and blue
chemicals is made out of 9, 10-diphenylanthracene. All of these chemicals have
something to do with fluorescent dye solution. When the glow stick hasn’t been broken it
may seem a different color but when it’s broken it could be blue instead of yellow.
Anand Wong at, Cary Academy did an experiment on light traveling through different
solutions. He found that when a light shined through a red liquid it had 1500 lux and with
no color in the beaker it shined the brightest through the container. When he collected
the data he found that the water with no color was the brightest over time.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
In this experiment glow sticks, light probe, hammer, beaker, heat plate, water,
freezer,30 &3% hydrogen peroxide, fluorescent dye, and a timer where all used in this
experiment.
In the first experiment different colors of glow sticks where broken the held 2cm in front
of the light probe for 10 seconds. The data was recorded.
In the next experiment a green glow stick was put in a beaker which contained 150 mL
of water. The beaker was put on a hot plate for 0 sec, 5 sec, 10 sec, and 15 sec. The
glow stick was put in front of the light probe for 10 sec.
In the next experiment the glow sticks were broken then the hydrogen peroxide was
poured down the sink and the red fluorescent dye was put in a different container. Then
the red fluorescent dye was added with 3% hydrogen peroxide then it sat with the light
probe above it and the average light was taken. After that was taken the red fluorescent
dye was added with 30% hydrogen peroxide and the light probe was over it for 5
minutes as well the average light given off was taken for results.
In the next experiment three different color glow sticks were broken then the hydrogen
peroxide was put into a different container and each different color fluorescent dye was
put into its own container then each color was combined with five drops of hydrogen
peroxide the light probe was put 2cm away from the combination.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In the first experiment the glow stick that was the brightest was green (23.4 lux) and the
least amount was yellow (5 lux). This is because the brighter the color is on paper the
brighter it will be when glowing.
Amount of light (lux)
25
20
15
10
5
0
Green
Yellow
Orange
pink
Color of glow stick
Figure 3-This shows how bright each different glow stick was when glowing
In the third follow up experiment the most amount of time in hot water (15sec) was the
brightest at 34 lux. The least amount of time in the hot water (0sec) gave off the least
amount of light at 23.4 lux. This is because just like in real life when it is hotter it gets
brighter because the sun is shining down on the earth so the hotter things get the
brighter things get.
40
Amount of light (lux)
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Time in hot water (sec)
Figure 4- This shows how bright a green glow stick is the brightest when put in hot water for different amounts of time
In the eighth follow up experiment the mixture with thirty hydrogen peroxide
concentration was the brightest after 5 minutes. The dimmest was the mixture with three
hydrogen peroxide concentration was the dimmest after 5 minutes. This was because
the higher concentration of hydrogen peroxide the brighter it should be when added with
fluorescent dye.
6
Amount of light (lux)
5
4
3
2
1
0
30 hydrogen
3 hydrogen
hydrogen peroxide constantration
Figure 5-This shows how bright different amounts of hydrogen peroxide is when added with fluorescent dye and left out for
5 minutes
In the ninth follow up experiment the green fluorescent dye with hydrogen peroxide was
the brightest (23 lux). The dimmest mixture of fluorescent dye and hydrogen peroxide
was the purple one (14 lux). This is because the brighter the color is on paper the
brighter it will be when glowing.
Amount of light (lux)
25
20
15
10
5
0
purple
blue
green
Color of broken glowstick
Figure 6- this shows how bright different colors of fluorescent dye is when added with hydrogen peroxide
CONCLUSION
In the experiments the brightest glow stick over all was the green glow stick after it was
put in hot water for fifteen seconds. The data in this experiment proves what color of
light it the brightest. It was expected that the green glow stick was going to be the
brightest because of the color and the experience with it before. In the future something
could be done with shining a flash light through different colors of liquids and the lux
could be taken.
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"Glow stick." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 4
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Harris, Tom. "How Light Sticks Work" 02 November 2001. HowStuffWorks.com. 12
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Lafferty,Peter.Macmillan Revised Encyclopedia of Science. Broadway: Macmillan
Library Reference.1997.Print.
Lowe, Lindsay ed. Introducing Physics, Light and Sound. Tucson :Brown Bear
Books.2010.Print.
Wong, Anand. The Study of Light Traveling Through Different Solutions. Cary
Academy.2010.Print.