Earlier this week, we published an article on the most recent in a long line of viral internet “challenges” – the Sharpie Shock Challenge. The Sharpie Shock Challenge, which involves drawing a dark square or other shape on your skin with a black permanent marker, and proceeding to “shock” yourself on the darkened shape with the flash of your smartphone, has thousands of children and teens around the world posting images and videos on Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, and pretty much any other form of social media you can think of.
If you read the last article, you probably came to the same conclusions that we did: that the sensation produced by the “challenge” is really more of a burn than a shock, and that the Sharpie Shock Challenge is relatively safe – at least when compared to similar “challenges” and other stupid and potentially dangerous acts many teenagers carry out. That said, although many of the videos depicting people performing the challenge are grossly exaggerated, it does produce a slight pinching, shocking, or burning sensation on the skin. So let’s take a look at why the Sharpie Shock Challenge actually works.
The Sharpie Shock Challenge, as was mentioned earlier, involves darkening a patch of skin (usually on the inside of the wrist or back of the hand) with a black permanent marker. From there, the person performing the challenge must place the flash of their smartphone camera directly on the darkened spot, and snap a photo, activating the flash, which will produce a slight “shocking” sensation on the hand.
As was also discussed previously, the actions don’t produce a “shock” per se, but actually a very slight burn. Really, it boils down to simple physics – most people realize that lighter-colored objects tend to reflect light, while darker-colored objects tend to absorb light. That’s why it’s not a great idea to wear black clothes on a hot summer day, or why black cars tend to heat up in the sun much faster than white ones do. HowStuffWorks offers a simple and concise explanation of the effect – “what does the absorption of light have to do with heat? When an object absorbs light, it converts that light to thermal energy, and emits it back out as heat. So, because black objects absorb more light, they also emit more heat.”
As you can probably figure, the spot on your skin that has been darkened with the Sharpie will absorb more light, and thus emit more heat than other, lighter spots on your skin. As you can also probably figure, the flash on your smartphone emits a short, but pretty intense, burst of light. The darkened spot of your skin will absorb all of the light, and thus thermal energy (heat) from the flash, resulting in a slight burning sensation on your skin. In fact, there are several videos on YouTube in which the person performing the challenge uses a more intense flash from a higher quality camera, and you can actually see a bit of smoke emit from where hair is burned on the back of their hands – a burn, not a shock.
As we discussed in our past article, the Sharpie Shock Challenge isn’t necessarily dangerous. If someone repeatedly performed the challenge on the same spot of skin, there is probably risk of a slight burn, but nothing serious. If you feel the need to test the challenge on yourself, you know, in the name of science, you’ll probably leave yourself a bit underwhelmed. Now that you understand the science behind the challenge, there’s really no need to perform it anyway – feel free to move on to the next questionable viral challenge that the internet is sure to come up with soon.
How do you feel about this challenge? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: idropnews.com