Talk:Blue amber

[untitled]
Added the pictures under sunlight and against sunlight. Hope to clear up the true/holographic blue issue. It seems to arise a lot. Pictures are taken from Is Blue Amber Really Blue? with permission. --The Singularity 01:42, 28 August 2005 (UTC)

[untitled]
Added an external link to alternate theories. --The Singularity 13:59, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

"holographic"?
holographic? no. fluorescent? yes.

Holography is a very distinct mechanism. this isn't it :) --207.109.251.117 12:30, 13 November 2005 (UTC)

I think 'holographic' reflects the opinion of the author. You look at it it from one side, it looks blue. Move it an inch and it gets darker. Move it again and the blue disappears, etc. Much like a 'holographic' image, although not the same process and probably wrongly applied.

Find-spots
Whereabouts is it found in the Dominican Republic? Is it washed up on the shore like the Baltic amber? Is it mined? When was it first discovered? 86.133.247.156 16:45, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Copal?
How about blue copal? Does it exist? -- Cimon Avaro; on a pogostick. (talk) 01:05, 7 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Not to my knowledge. But if I ever come across it I'll write it up. --The Singularity (talk) 13:27, 24 September 2009 (UTC)

Refracted Off?
The author might like to rephrase this expression. I can't offer a suggestion as I don't know what is actually intended by the term.

When light passes through the surface of a material, it is refracted at the boundary, this is the bending of light at the interface.

When light bounces off the surface of a material it is reflected.

When light is bent so as to be split into its consituent spectral colours, it is diffracted.

Refracting off something is not possible.

My understanding is that the blue colour occurs because of absorbed ultraviolet light being re-radiated in the blue range of the visible spectrum ... this is none of the three options I mentioned above. Perhaps the black background only serves to make the blue light visible to the eye? The reflected light from a white background may overwhelm it and render it undetectable?

Hansthegerman (talk) 16:26, 9 May 2012 (UTC)

Contradiction as to where it occurs
The lede states that blue amber "has been found only in the Dominican Republic", but under the heading "Causes of coloration" it states "This effect (blueness) is only possible in some specimens of Dominican amber category, in some Mexican ambers from Chiapas and some ambers from Indonesia" (emphases added). And the second photograph, captioned "Polished blue amber under direct sunlight" is of a specimen discovered in West Java, Indonesia. So there is a contradiction that blue amber "has been found only in the Dominican Republic". Could anyone with more knowledge about the subject than I please restate the lede to reflect that it is not exclusively found in the Dominican Republic? Bricology (talk) 20:33, 14 April 2022 (UTC)