did you notice my queer little quartz post?

Yes. Not sure what was happening there.

For one reason or another, only a smidge of the post showed up. Admittedly it was probably the most important part...the one about not setting fire to the house.

I've removed it, as it was bugging me.....but it is true. Quartz can be bashed together and can produce sparks.

We learnt this at a recent home ed day. When Od asked the demonstrator why this happened, she was told that it is because crystals hold lots of emotions in them, and when you strike them together you stir the emotions.

Hmmmm.

She came home and told her Father this. Mr Wah is very much a logical person and this explanation did not sit easy with him. I took a back seat, retreated to the kitchen to cook tea, and left him to battle it out with Google.

Turns out Wikipedia had the best explanation:

It's Triboluminescence. Of course.

Now, that is such an unusual word that the Blogger spell checker just had a freak out, and wanted to change it to Thermoluminescence. Which is not the same thing.

I did point out that this gave us a nice big word with which to describe what is happening, but it still doesn't tell us why it is happening.

So it could be a millennium's worth of excitement, or it could be something else.

I'm happy to not know, but enjoy and share the amazement of this new discovery.

I'm also amused to see Mr Wah in turn perplexed and frustrated at not being able to explain something with logic.