I remember mercury balls rolling around in one of the science classes. It isn't clear then that we realized how toxic it is. Or maybe our science teacher was using a pure Hg.
I got to thinking about how heavy it is. The element's atomic mass is 200.59 grams per mole and its specific gravity is 13.5 times that of water.
It is the only metal to remain liquid at room temperature. What colour is it when it is put in water? It is red.
If Mercury were not toxic and we could go swimming - we would float on it. It is incredibly dense. A 2 litre jug of mercury weighs more than 50 pounds. Professional experimenter CodyDon has done quite a few activities with mercury. One of his videos is his attempt to stand on liquid mercury. It is HERE. Another of his experiments is floating a 50 kg anvil on mercury. Liquid mercury is denser than an anvil so the anvil floats. Tungsten is denser than the steel anvil and would sink in liquid mercury.
And what about toxic vapours? Cody's lab has the question posted 3 years ago.
Question: Does cody have poisoning from all the mercury he handles? Answer: Last blood test says my levels are below average.
And another answer has this information: The mad hatter in Alice in Wonderland is actually a victim of mercury poisoning, because they used to brush mercury into the felt of top hats to make them shiny. They also probably followed none of the sensible precautions Cody does to avoid being poisoned.
And another answer: Cody deals with elemental (pure Hg) mercury, a relatively unharmful substance. The mercury you may be thinking of is called organic mercury (ex. dimethyl mercury), and this is the possibly lethal and therefor very toxic mercury. Simply put, this stuff=bad news if handled in the way cody handles his elemental mercury.
This looks like a science experiment of some sort with all these splash splashes.
