| LCD screens are uniquely modern in style, and the | | | | responsiveness is a boon; but this same property |
| liquid crystals that make them work have allowed | | | | can unfortunately make LCD screens unreliable in |
| humanity to create slimmer, more portable | | | | extreme climates. |
| technology than we've ever had access to | | | | In an LCD screen, electric currents work at a |
| before. From your wrist watch to your laptop, a | | | | microscopic level to control the amount of light |
| lot of the on the go electronics that we tote | | | | that passes through the liquid crystal molecules |
| from place to place are only possible because of | | | | that make up the moving layer of the screen, |
| their thin, light LCD display screens. Liquid crystal | | | | which is sandwiched between clear glass panels. |
| display (LCD) technology still has some stumbling | | | | The currents can force the naturally twisted |
| blocks in its path that can make it unreliable at | | | | molecules to unwind or coil tighter, thereby |
| times, but on the whole the invention of the LCD | | | | changing the amount of light that can pass from |
| screen has allowed great leaps forward in global | | | | the bulb behind the glass to the eye of the |
| technological progress. | | | | viewer. It may help you understand this process |
| Although liquid crystals are not really liquid, their | | | | by imagining that light filters through an LCD |
| molecules behave more like a liquid than they do | | | | screen the same way that sunlight filters through |
| like a solid, which earns them their name. The | | | | the leaves of a tree. Now, imagine that the tree |
| crystals in an LCD exist in a kind of a unique | | | | is being blown in the wind, and you will see that |
| middle ground between solid form and liquid form, | | | | the amount and placement of the light that |
| which gives them the movement and flexibility of | | | | comes through the leaves changes. This is very |
| a liquid; but can also let them remain in place, like | | | | similar to the dynamic that powers an LCD |
| a solid. Heat can quickly melt a solid to liquid, | | | | screen, except that the sun is a small light bulb, |
| allowing it to move, whereas cool will make the | | | | the leaves are molecules of liquid crystal, and the |
| liquid solidify almost instantly. The sensitivity of | | | | wind is made up of electric currents sent by the |
| liquid crystals to temperature can be an | | | | computer and designed to create a specific light |
| advantage, or a disadvantage. It allows for the | | | | pattern that your eye will interpret as words or |
| highly successful use of liquid crystals in devices | | | | images. |
| like thermometers, where temperature | | | | |