h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Apparently (this researcher hasn't tried it yet) if you put an electric current through a pickled cucumber it will glow. This has something to do with the sodium ions from the brine.

I'm sure other researchers will be along any time now to expand on this most interesting of topics. I personally would like to know the story of the first person to 'discover' this phenomenon. For some reason I don't picture some stoic scientist like Marie Curie diligently toiling away in her lab.

Thanks for setting up this new thread CZ (BIGGRIN>.

Perhaps they glow in homage to Dr Zeus

Ok, reiterate that bit about the sodium ions...

'Sodium irons', for when you need really flat salt

Well this all started with RadioactiveBIGAL1's comment "Apparently it's very spectacular if you pass an electric current through a pickle "

I instantly thought that maybe the pickle would explode or something. But apparently it glows. Ok... so, how much voltage does it take? Will a 9V battery suffice? If I hook it up to 110V-AC will it oscillate?

He mentioned something about it being 'regretable' that the pickle glows yellow:

"When an electric current is passed through the said pickle, the sodium ions are excited and (I regret to have to inform you that) the pickle glows yellow as the excited sodium ions return to the 'ground state'. This is sodium-D emission, as is observed in street lighting."

Well, what's regretable about that?

If a small battery will do it, I'll be setting up a little bench setup by my fridge. I eat a lot of pickles so I'll be able to compare different brands. I wonder if olives are translucent enough (at all?) to behave similarly? What about pickled asparagus, or okra? Probably not, but hey what's the harm in trying


:: mode::

BWHAAHAAHAA... IT'S ALIVE I TELL YOU!!!

I believe, that the regretible thing, wasn't to do with the pickle itself and its state of 'glowing', but rather that it was regretible that the word 'exciting' had to be mentioned in that other* thread, which is generally not regarded as the kind of place for exciting things to be mentioned in

No, what was regretable about it was that the pickle glows yellow; whereas, 'riotact' reckoned that the thread was only permitted to stay within 'boring and banal' if it glowed green.

As an aside, this led me to speculate why green was considered to be the colour of 'boring and banal'

P.S. I'll let you know s'thing about voltages once the footy's finished on TV.

WARNING:

to all who might be planning on trying the pickle experiment, you must be warned

IT SMELLS!!

IT REALLY SMELLS!!!

OPEN A WINDOW WHEN YOU DO IT

oh, and be carful not to let the forks touch each other. they will arc if you do and that would get messy.

The sodium chloride in the pickle makes it glow yellow.

For a bit of a fun tip, if you soak the pickle for a week in a brine made with the salt substitute, potassium chloride, you will get a pinkish glow from the potassium instead of the yellow glow. Supposedly other types of salts will produce different color glows.

Glowing pickles are fun

Yes, but what voltage? I definitely ain't pluggin' two forks into the wall socket.



(btw, 'the Luggage', I'm reading 'The Light Fantastic' currently. I've sporadically read several other books from the Discworld series in no particular order but have now decided to catch up on the parts I've missed. Your namesake gets up to quite a bit of fun in TLF. )

you use the standard 120 Volts from a wall outlet but its best not to plug it directly into the outlet since it could short it out.

Its best to plug the cord into a variac power supply so that you can increase the voltage slowly. don't let anything touch the pickle while there is voltage applied to it. Once it is plugged in, dont' touch.

and yes, the light fantastic is one of my favorites

So it wouldn't probably work with a 9 volt battery?

no

you need to get enough current flowing through the pickle to heat the water in the pickle beyond the boiling point. The pickle will steam before glowing. When the region is dried out around one of the forks, a spark will leap between the electrode and the still wet part of the pickle. The spark will excite the sodium in the salt water and cause the sodium to emit yellow light.

unfortunately, I don't think I nine volt battery could get it hot enough.

Yes, you do need the 120V Mains voltage.

For the history of the demo GOTO http://www.discoverchemistry.com/dcv2-docroot/student/fun_stuff/electric_pickle/default.html

Have fun

Yay!!! Pickle!!

"Can i have a sandwich!with a pickle!!!"

*hands footbacon a glowing pickle sandwich*

Yay!

So, would 240 Volts in teh UK give a brighter glow?