Liquid crystal is not an oxymoron. Know what it is? Have you ever wondered how it works? There are liquid crystal displays, or LCDs, in almost every electronic device that requires a display: watches, computers, watches, you name it.
So what they do is put liquid crystal between two sheets of polarizing metal, then pass an electrical current through it so the crystals line up and light can’t get through. Each crystal is open or closed. That is, the light passes or does not pass. They say it works like a blind to open and close. Electricity is what makes it open or close.
There is a great website called How Stuff Works. I use it when I have questions about how things like LCD screens work. The link to information about LCD is http://www.howstuffworks.com/lcd.htm. There are several articles there, but I’ll give you some basics that I learned here and you can dig a little further if you’re interested.
If you read all the information at http://www.howstuffworks.com you will find out how to make your own LCD screen. That’s a little more than I want to do, but it’s interesting. Maybe reading it will give you new ideas on how to improve technology if that’s your thing. Or maybe you just want to get a general idea and that’s it.
Science is always finding new ways to play with light and matter to show us what we want, whether it’s the time, the words in your word processor, or something we haven’t even thought of yet. Studying current technology often leads someone to improve it. This is how we progress. You take what you have, usually by combining things in new ways, and put them together in different ways to come up with something that works even better than the last idea.
I’m really glad there are people doing that. It sure makes my life easier!