ELI5: How peeling scotch tape in a vacuum creates radiation.

| Category: Explain

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bazmonkey: The phenomena is triboluminescence. It’s not entirely understood by science, but what we think is happening is that when the tape is peeled, it creates charge (e.g. one surface keeps an electron when they’re ripped apart). That charge quickly recombines, which–in air–ionizes the air and makes light. Absent of air, it seems the charge leaves as X-rays.

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