How Do Mood Rings Work?

Think about the seventies and images of lava lamps and mood rings come to your mind. Both unique and colorful and more importantly, masterstrokes in terms of ingenuity. This was especially true for the mood ring which boasted of being able to predict the wearer's mood by a simple change of color. Invented by Joshua Reynolds in the 1970s, mood rings caught the imagination of a generation and went on to become a fad that still exists. What was the idea behind this piece of jewelry? Simple, wear it on your finger and it will change colors depending on what you are feeling emotionally. While there was no precision involved in the predictions of the ring, these rings became as popular as the magic-8 balls that apparently could tell you your future. But how do these rings work? In this article, we will tell you how these accessories work scientifically.

How does a Mood Ring Work?

The working of a mood ring depends largely on the body temperature of the wearer of the ring and the change in body temperature regulates the change in color. So, what are the different colors that are reflected by a mood ring and what is the meaning of the colors of a mood ring? The table given below tells you about the most common colors that a mood ring reflects and what each color means.

	Happy, Passionate
	Calm
	Relaxed
	Normal
	Nervous
	Anxious
	Stressed, Angry

Now that you know what is the meaning of the different colors of a mood ring, let us take a look at how a mood ring changes colors and what principles its working is based on. If you take a mood ring apart, you will see that the stone of a mood ring is made of hollow quartz or a hollow glass shell that consists of thermotropic liquid crystals. These liquid crystals are hypersensitive and are affected by changes in temperature. When there is even a slight change in temperature, the molecules of the liquid crystal change position and tend to twist, thereby changing their basic molecular structure. This change has an effect on the light wavelengths that are reflected by the crystals, thus creating a change in the color of the stone.

Say you are wearing a mood ring and the temperature of your body increases. This results in shift in the molecules of the liquid crystal that is present in the stone of the mood ring. An increase in temperature causes a shift to a certain direction that results in absorption of red and green lights, and reflection of blue lights thereby causing the stone to look blue in color. The same phenomenon occurs at every shift in temperature with a change in the colors that are absorbed and reflected. When the ring reflects the color green, it is considered to be the normal state that the body should be in because that is the average body temperature of a person. When the temperature varies beyond the normal, there occurs a change in color of the mood ring. So, how is this applied to reflect a change in your emotional state? Well, there is a definite correlation because you may have noticed that your emotion tends to have an effect on your body temperature. When you are happy or angry, there is a rise in temperature and when you are sad or depressed, there is generally a fall in body temperature. This fall or rise in the body temperature affects the positioning of the liquid crystal molecules in the ring.

While mood rings can be quite accurate from time to time, they are not an exact reflection of your mood. Now that you know the scientific reasoning behind the working of a mood ring, you should know that there is no magic involved.