How do mood rings work?
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From the brains behind Brains On, this is the Moment of Um. Moment of Um comes to you from APM Studios. I'm Ruby Guthrie. Um...

I like to think of myself as pretty easy to be around. If I see you out in the street and you say, "Hey Ruby!" I'll probably smile and yell back, "Hey pal!" Even if I'm having a tough day. It's more than likely that I'll just keep that to myself, unless I know you really, really well. I wish there was a way for me to share my emotions without actually having to tell anyone. Sort of like a secret code. Did I hear someone say secret code?

Maybe. Did I hear someone say they don't like to talk about their feelings? Well, not exactly. Did I hear someone doing the dance between wanting to be open and honest and yet creating a boundary around their innermost thoughts and feelings? Well, yes. Then do I have the product for you. I'm Lady Magnus. Nice to meet you. Come, come, come into my shop.

Oh, so sparkly. These are moon?

Okay, but how does it work? And how did you know my name?

And how did you know about Enraged Ruby? Yes, we had a customer in here yesterday with the same question. My name is Catherine and I live in Houston, Texas. My question is, how do mood rings work? Hi, my name's Ned Thomas and I'm a materials scientist and a materials engineer.

The mood ring, it's this cool thing that you put on your finger and it has a color which changes during the day and people relate it to somehow the ring knows what you're thinking or feeling. And

The ring doesn't know what you're thinking, but it knows whether or not your temperature of your extremities, your finger, if your finger temperature is going up, the ring's going to change a color in a certain direction.

If the temperature goes down, it's going to change color in another direction. And then that would beg the question, why does your temperature go up and down? You know, if you exercise, for example, and you run in lifting weights, climbing stairs, vigorous exercise, you use a lot of oxygen and your heart's beating and your blood's flowing. And when your blood flows, it brings warm energy.

blood from inside your interior to your fingertips and your face and so forth. A lot of times people look at somebody's face and say, boy, you're red, your face is very red. And that's because the blood has gone into the blood vessels and swollen them up near the surface and your skin changes sort of color. It also changes temperature. When people get sick, their temperature goes up a couple of degrees or even if it goes more than a couple of degrees, they're very sick.

Well, mood rings, they play the same game, but now you don't want to target 98.6 or 100. You want 80 or 82.

And then when you exercise, your mood is going to change. Or if you're feeling good, maybe just taking a walk and it's pleasant and the sun's out and you're having a talk with your friend, you feel good. Your mood ring will glow a certain color that will be designed to say, I don't know, bright green or something because you're feeling good. And when I'm in the green mood, I feel good.

Humans, we like to think about magic and we like to think about sort of special effects that are controlled by gods or goddesses or something or other. And so there's this mystery about, I mean, there's no wires, there's no buttons to push.

at any particular time, there's something that, that is deemed cool. This ring is, it's just a thing, but it knows how you're feeling. And, you know, of course it doesn't know how you're feeling. It knows what your temperature is, but the temperature is influenced by how you're feeling and what you're doing. Um, uh,

So now that you know all about mood rings and you understand that they're not really telling us our moods, but rather our temperature, maybe you're asking yourself why you don't see too many people wearing them. Well, they're not a super modern accessory. They were invented in 1975. The 1970s had a lot of fads. That's when something becomes super popular super fast, then fades away almost just as fast.

Bell bottoms, disco music, circle sunglasses, and something called a pet rock were big back then. And sometimes fads come back. Speaking of, gotta go. I'm late for my 2 p.m. disco jazzercise class. If you like this episode, take a second to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

And if you want to learn more about moods and emotions, check out the Brains On podcast, where we have a four-part series all about our feelings. If you have a Moment of Um question, we'd love to help you answer it. Drop us a line by going to brainson.org slash contact. Moment of Um is produced by Molly Bloom, Rosie Dupont, Anna Goldfield, Ruby Guthrie, Mark Sanchez, Sandin Totten, Anna Wagle, and Nico Gonzalez-Whistler.

We had editing help from Shayla Farzan, production help from Lydia Morrell, and engineering help from Cameron Wiley. Our theme song is by Mark Sanchez. Our executive producer is Beth Perlman. The executives in charge of APM Studios are Chandra Karbati, Alex Shaffert, and Joanne Griffith. Special thanks this week goes to Cara Gimo, Rona Cox, Maggie Adarin-Pocock, Gwenna Ellen Thomas, and Edwin Thomas.

See you next time. And then at Jazzercise tomorrow and every weekday. Until then. Ooh, so sparkly.