Amazing Colors from Salt ! Growing Crystals under Polarized Light - Microscope

For years, I've had an old microscope sitting on my desk, next to my computer. Thought I'd try using it with my camcorder, in the hopes of capturing a spectacular glimpse of what happens when you grow crystals under polarized light.

For this attempt, I used a common house chemical, epson salts ( magnesium sulfate ). The salts were dissolved in hot water, until the solution was saturated. A small amount was placed on a microscope slide. As the salt water cooled, the crystals formed. All of the photos are from the same batch of epson salts. There is amazing variety!

My regular PTZ camera didn't handle the vivid colors very well, so I switched to a JVC Everio. Even so, the polarizers greatly reduced the available light.




Demo: Projection microscope , polarized light , Epson Salts , Vivid Colors ...

Music: Plain Loafer by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons "Attibution 3.0"
http://creativecommons.org/licenses//by/3.0

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Growing
• Crystals
• Polarized
• Light
• Projection
• Microscope
• Slides
• Epson
• Salts
• Water
• Magnesium
• Sulfate
• Chemical
• Chemistry
• Science
• Demo
• Demonstration
• Colorful
• Vivid
• Birefringent
• Birefringence
• Polarizing
• Optics
• Experiment
• Magnify

[BabuBlaze]

this is going in the book

[BabuBlaze]

:O 6,000 views, posted 2 years ago, and yet 0 dislikes!!!

[Veevid4u]

I tried growing crystal with Epson salt twice, but the results were rather disappointing. Didn't realize the crystals are so beautiful! Great vid.

[malcalas]

Wow so Interesante. I have grown crystals too (well single sometimes... with a lot of luck) of organic compounds.... and I first started with NaCl