Message 22222 of 39188 in General Discussion

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Sorry i didn't post a better explanation before.

Alright, so I couldn't resist giving a slightly better explanation of why 
quinine glows under blacklight.  Quinine has a multiple-ring aromatic 
structure.  Going into the chemistry, the UV light excites the pi bonds in the 
aromatic system causing them to jump in energy level.  Then as they relax, 
they give off photons at a higher wavelength with less energy.  Since UV is 
higher energy than visible, the fluourescent photons appear in the visible 
spectrum.  And that is basically why quinine glows.