What makes a glow stick glow?

Question

I was just wondering if anyone knows what makes a glow stick glow in the dark.

Answer 1

that glow could be from an excitement of electrons but Im not sure

Answer 2

The glow stick has two chemicals and a dye (makes the color).  The chemicals are cyalume and hydrogen peroxide.   For more information on the actual chemistry of the reactions, go to...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightstick

Answer 3

there are two kinds of energy emission by excitation of electrons, phosphorescence and fluorescence. fluorescence is a short lived energy emission (up to a millionth of a second)  and a high energy process while phosphorescence is a long lived emission of energy that lasts up to about a few minutes and is a low energy process.

what we actually see is the phosphorescence of a molecule found in your glowstick.