Mood rings change their colour as per the mood changes of the wearer. When our mood changes, our body temperature gets regulated accordingly and thus the basal temperature undergoes a change.

What are mood rings?

Having invented by Joshua Reynolds, the mood rings enjoyed fad popularity in the 1970s and are still around today.

Mood rings are rings that have a stone or a band that changes colour in response to the changing temperatures of our bodies. The mood rings are sort of sandwich. Not in literal sense but resemble one when it comes to the properties of the ring.

The bottom layer is the ring which is made of sterling silver but is usually plated with silver or gold over brass. There is a strip of liquid crystals that are glued on the ring. A plastic or a glass dome or a coating is placed over the liquid crystals. In higher quality ones, mood rings are sealed to prevent water or any other liquid from getting into the liquid crystals. Any kind of moisture or high humidity will spoil the ring.

Talking about the liquid crystals, they are nothing but thermochromic liquid crystals. There are many natural and synthetic liquid crystals that are used in these rings. These crystals change colour according to the temperature, so the exact composition of a mood ring depends on its manufacturer. But it has been noticed that most rings contain crystals made from organic polymers. The most common polymer is based on cholesterol.

The 'stone' in a mood ring is generally a hollow quartz or glass shell containing thermochromic liquid crystals.

How do mood rings work?

When our mood changes, our body turns warm or cold. As the ring becomes warmer, more energy is available to the crystals. The molecules absorb the energy thus produced and twist, altering the way light passes through them. When our body temperature dips, our body turns cold and as a result the ring also turns cold. The molecules fail to get the energy and as a result they get back to the normal colour.

What the Mood Ring Colours Mean?

Here is a list that indicates what your mood ring signifies. The top of the list is the warmest temperature, at violet, moving to the coolest temperature, at black.

• violet blue indicates happy, romantic
• blue indicates calm, relaxed
• green indicates average, not much going on with you
• yellow/amber indicates tense, excited
• brown/gray indicates nervous, anxious
• black indicates cold temperature or damaged ring

Although the temperature of your finger and the mood ring do change depending on your emotions, your finger changes temperature for a lot of other reasons, too. Hence it depends how much you believe in the mood ring to determine the mood of the wearer.