How have I never heard of triboluminescence before

>wouldn't come close to what's necessary for it to release light
I don't think you understand the scale of what we're talking about here.

Yeah, I'm not familiar with the mints, but it's not like I think there's any kind of bond breaking that can be done by one's jaw, it's just possible that relatively reactive chemicals could be arranged in a stable structure in a typical mint that could be activated through biting it, or through pressure in general.

Not saying that's how it is, because I don't know what mints are made of, but I can't discount the possibility of it.

yes.
usually you have to have someone else looking in your mouth.

The human jaw can produce a lot of pressure, but as I understand the pressure needed it's not that much, the issue it's to actually see that light produced while the mint it's inside your mouth or in general cause it's really fast.

>not like I think there's any kind of bond breaking that can be done by one's jaw
Yes it can, when you break a crystal you are destroying the bonds between molecules inside of it. This creates light because electrons move between atoms for a short time during this intermolecular bond breaking and release light during this.

Just tried this with a few soft mints (its all i have) and was unsuccessful

When I was a kid, we used to do this trick all the time by biting down on the mint. We couldn't actually see the light it produced unless we were in a dark place with a mirror, which is what my childhood home bathroom was like since it was in the center of the house and had no windows. Also, we only ever did it with the hard Lifesavers mints, and even then, we still had to bite down on it with it standing upright like in pic related to get the desired effect. Though it took a bit of practice to get right, it still didn't work sometimes, but those mints come in packages of over 100, so if we really wanted to see it, we could see it.

The flash of light is just that: a flash. You don't even realize you saw it until right after. I imagine that since it only happens when the mint breaks, the luminescent bit is traveling at the speed of sound through the mint and so it lasts for the corresponding duration.

If anyone cba, get a camera, some life savers mints, and a webm converter to give us plebeians a demonstration. Remember to keep your lips open when you shut your jaw, and try your best to keep the mint upright when you break it. Hopefully, a standard camera will be able to record it.

This is pretty neat. The faster you can break it, the brighter the light will get. I wonder if different materials would illuminate different colors rather than blue?

youtu.be/tW8q_JfmcbU

Hold up, I managed to get it to spark. I'll see if I can get it on camera.

I think quartz produces a white light when you shatter it.

I got it to work with duct tape. Just fold it and tape it to itself and pull it apart. Wasnt able to get a recording though. If you got some duct tape lying around try it yourself. Pretty cool