[Corvettaholic]

After reading geodome's article, I see how certain compounds display at certain color while just sitting there. Now, if you increase the energy state as you would in a neon light, would it have the same effect? Does it depend on the compound? I imagine if I threw 10,000 volts though gasoline, nothing good would come of it. Oh it'd make light all right...

[Mitch]

Gasoline has no conjugation and thus can not omit colors by the mechanism geodome explained. Although it does have very interesting colors from thin-film optics. Passing a voltage would be problematic since you need charge carriers in the gasoline to allow the passage of charge.

[Corvettaholic]

Oh I know its possible to pass a voltage through .. well.. diesel or JP8. Army taught me all about that in a little class called "flame field expedient". Neat stuff. Or maybe it was a simple blasting cap... its been a while since I've taken the class. Not that I have any need for it stateside.