Stormlight is not light

[HSuperLee]

Correct me if there's another discussion on this, but I couldn't find one. 

I was thinking about the King's Drop, and how it still emits light, despite supposedly never loosing stormlight. More than that, no one comments on it being dim, but rather is seems that it emits a level of light that would be expected on an imperfect gem of its size. That led me to the conclusion that the light we see gems emit through the series must not be stormlight. Now yes, it seems that the brightness of the light is directly proportional with the amount of stormlight inside the gem, but that still makes sense.

I am now thinking, that stormlight within a gem must have a reaction with the molecular structure of the gem that causes the electrons to get excited, and thus emit light. Kind of like how a synthetic diamond made of radioactive carbon-14 produces electricity as the radiation bounces off the diamond's structure. (see this article of more on that) Of course, if this was talking about normal energy, the stormlight would be loosing a small amount of investiture whenever it bounces off the molecules and creates light, and thus the gem would eventually fade. I have two ideas for why the King's Drop stayed invested for so long though.

1. The amount of investiture used in the creation of light is minuscule in comparison to the overall investiture within the stormlight, so it would take a very very long time for the gem to go dim. And considering the gem was only sealed away for 200 years, if the reaction I'm talking about really is comparable to radiation, that's basically no time at all.

2. Investiture might be able to cause physical reactions without loosing some of itself to those reactions. I'm a bit reluctant on this because it has impacts on the whole, investiture parallels the laws of thermodynamics thing, as it would basically mean investiture ignores the second law of thermodynamics and maybe the first.

Either way, that's my idea, what do y'all think? 

[StrikerEZ]

@HSuperLee I think the reason stormlight emits light when it’s in gems is because the stormlight basically acts as cord that plugs into the gem, connecting it to the Spiritual Realm. The gem glows because it is connected directly to the Spiritual Realm. In the case of normal gems, the imperfections allow the stormlight to leak out; we don’t notice stormlight leaking out much because the light of the gem glowing is probably brighter than the stormlight itself.

[RShara]

It's definitely a little odd, and seems to violate the laws of thermodynamics. But this is what Brandon says:

Quote

Alteroden

With Stormlight, the better the gem is cut, the less Stormlight it leaks, and the longer it holds its charge. If a gem was perfectly cut, on a molecular scale, would it leak Stormlight at all?

Brandon Sanderson

In a theoretical flawless gem, then no it would not.

Alteroden

Would it actually give off light?

Brandon Sanderson

[...] Theoretically no it would not, but it's not what you're thinking...

Alteroden

No no no, that’s not what I’m thinking, I figured that’s something totally different.

Brandon Sanderson

Well, actually, it probably would still give off light, because it's drawing out of the Spiritual Realm. So I’d say it still lights, but it doesn't leak. The leaking is not where the illumination is coming from. The illumination is coming from a direct... It's basically a light bulb screwed into the Spiritual Realm.

source

 

[StormblessedSurvivor]

On 12/12/2018 at 9:24 AM, HSuperLee said:

That led me to the conclusion that the light we see gems emit through the series must not be stormlight.

Well usually we don't see perfect gemstones like the King's Drop, so those non-perfect gems would we leaking Stormlight. They may just be giving off light other than the Stormlight.