You probably use items containing an LCD (liquid crystal display) every day. They are all around us -- in laptop computers, digital clocks and watches, microwave ovens, CD players and many other electronic devices. LCDs are common because they offer some real advantages over other display technologies. They are thinner and lighter and draw much less power than cathode ray tubes (CRTs), for example.
A simple LCD display from a calculator
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But just what are these things called liquid crystals? The name "liquid crystal" sounds like a contradiction. We think of a crystal as a solid material like quartz, usually as hard as rock, and a liquid is obviously different. How could any material combine the two?
In this article, you'll find out how liquid crystals pull off this amazing trick, and we will look at the underlying technology that makes LCDs work. You'll also learn how the strange characteristics of liquid crystals have been used to create a new kind of shutter and how grids of these tiny shutters open and close to make patterns that represent numbers, words or images!
