Mood rings are fads as every intelligent teenager knows but they are fun and are good conversation starters and are relatively inexpensive. What’s the harm? There is none if their use is clearly understood. In fact, just learning how they work teaches a little something about body chemistry and that makes owning one a positive experience.
What are they? Mood rings are hollow quartz or glass globes that are filled with heat sensitive liquid crystals that change color. Since it’s the heat in the fingers that cause the color change, one must understand what color is; it is nothing more than various magnetic wave lengths that reflect colored light to sensor cells of the human eye according to the amount of heat each wavelength has absorbed.
The color wheel ranges from blue, the shortest and coldest, to red, the longest and the warmest wavelength. Green, yellow and orange are the in-between colors. The more excited and agitated a person becomes, the warmer his fingers are. That’s about all there is to its magic.
Joshua Reynolds of the present R.J. Reynolds family, not Sir Joshua, the famous London portrait painter of the middle 1700s, invented the mood ring in 1970 at age 33. He was a psychologist living in New York. He has invented in other areas and apparently has a fine scientific mind.
Mood rings are still around but their style has changed somewhat. Now they are constructed of a flat strip of liquid crystals held together and protected by some type of covering. The crystals are so designed as to be moved or twisted and this changes their molecular structure thus forcing a color change.
Are they true indicators of mood? Not really. A person wearing one would be the one to more accurately describe their mood, or a friend could do a pretty good job guessing; but these methods, while more accurate, would generate far less excitement than the mood rings, or fun that can be had by owning one.
The body at normal is around 82 degrees Fahrenheit and 28 degrees on the Celsius scale. When you are happy and excited you normally will be warmer than if you were sad or unhappy. Your hands however may not reflect that happy state since the blood that normally heats your hands would be called away to help with some other bodily crisis if you were extremely excited or agitated. Thus the mood ring being blue, and not yellow or orange when you are happy.
I would say the mood ring is a fun object and nothing more. One online site author was calling them fraudulent. He still remembers when in the 70s he bought one and wore it while showering. It never worked again. Now, years later, he knows better and warns against them. What, apparently, he does not remember is how little things like mood rings, and pet rocks and silliness in general, is part of a teenager’s growing up experience.
If mood rings are used innocently and are not seen as some sort of black magic or occult paraphernalia, there is no harm in buying and wearing one if you have the money to spare. But if you are misled into believing that there is magic in the crystals, be forewarned, this is delusional.
The mechanism and science by which mood rings works are known and explainable by scientist and they will be the first to tell you no magic is involved. If your definition of magic is the same as mine and means something that can be manipulated and coerced into bringing about good luck, bad luck or is involved in other paranormal occurrences, then be careful.
I do not buy into any thing other than common sense. I do, however, believe in miracles, but they are not man made. They are form the one true and living God. I doubt however, if he has any interest in mood rings, only in the giggling and happy youth that innocently play with them.
Source:
http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistry/faqs/moodring.htm
http://www.globalmarketstore.com
http://www.super70s.com/super70s/culture/fads/mood_ring.asp
