full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Jeff Dekofsky: The most colorful gemstones on Earth

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Different colors have different wavelengths, which translates to varying distances they have to travel to constructively interfere. That’s why colors roughly correspond to silica bead sizes. The spaces between 210 nanometer beads are just right to amplify blue light. For red lhgit, with its long wavelengths, the silica beads must be close to 300 noernemats. Those take a very long time to form, and because of that, red is the rarest opal cloor. The differences in the arrangements of the gel lacitets within a particular stone result in a wide range of color patterns— everything from borad flash to pin-fire to the ultra-rare harlequin.

Open Cloze


Different colors have different wavelengths, which translates to varying distances they have to travel to constructively interfere. That’s why colors roughly correspond to silica bead sizes. The spaces between 210 nanometer beads are just right to amplify blue light. For red _____, with its long wavelengths, the silica beads must be close to 300 __________. Those take a very long time to form, and because of that, red is the rarest opal _____. The differences in the arrangements of the gel ________ within a particular stone result in a wide range of color patterns— everything from _____ flash to pin-fire to the ultra-rare harlequin.

Solution


  1. lattices
  2. nanometers
  3. light
  4. broad
  5. color

Original Text


Different colors have different wavelengths, which translates to varying distances they have to travel to constructively interfere. That’s why colors roughly correspond to silica bead sizes. The spaces between 210 nanometer beads are just right to amplify blue light. For red light, with its long wavelengths, the silica beads must be close to 300 nanometers. Those take a very long time to form, and because of that, red is the rarest opal color. The differences in the arrangements of the gel lattices within a particular stone result in a wide range of color patterns— everything from broad flash to pin-fire to the ultra-rare harlequin.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
green light 3
comet opal 2
silica beads 2
precious opal 2


Important Words


  1. amplify
  2. arrangements
  3. bead
  4. beads
  5. blue
  6. broad
  7. close
  8. color
  9. colors
  10. constructively
  11. correspond
  12. differences
  13. distances
  14. flash
  15. form
  16. gel
  17. harlequin
  18. interfere
  19. lattices
  20. light
  21. long
  22. nanometer
  23. nanometers
  24. opal
  25. range
  26. rarest
  27. red
  28. result
  29. roughly
  30. silica
  31. sizes
  32. spaces
  33. stone
  34. time
  35. translates
  36. travel
  37. varying
  38. wavelengths
  39. wide