what will mercury do outside of a thermometer?

Question

what will mercury do outside of a thermometer?

Answer 1

beside it being a dangerous chemical.
It will bead up into small balls, and roll all over the place

Answer 2

No, mercury is not "radioactive". It has high vapor pressure. In simple words: it evaporates easily. Its vapors are very toxic as was said before. It is true that most common thermometers do not use mercury anymore, but when I was a child, we used to play with mercury that fell out of broken thermometers.
It didn't harm us because the metal has to be ingested or inhaled.
I should say that lately FDA has been warning not to eat fish, in particular tuna in cans that are so common, too often because fish tissues have high mercury content. That mercury is ingested by fish from the high pollution in the seas and the oceans.

Answer 3

If you take the mercury out of a thermometer it forms little balls that you can merge into a bigger ball and split back into smaller balls, but it always stays perfectly round. I know this because i accidentally broke one when a was younger. I had hours of fun secretly playing with the little balls of mercury

Answer 4

if it's real mercury, then it can kill you if it gets outside of the thermometer and you breathe the vapors.

it'd have to be a very old thermometer, though.

Answer 5

Mercury is known to be used in some forms of easterm medication. So it can have some medicinal value, if used in the right quantity. As with some other "poisons", used appropriately, it becomes an antidote.

Answer 6

It will flow like thick water. Be careful Mercury will leach through your skin and is a poison. It can cause Central Nervous System damage and cellular disruption and Brain Damage!!!!

So, if you don't want to get stupid and die leave Mercury alone.

Answer 7

Mercury is really cool! Since it has such great intermolecular forces, it forms small balls of mercury! It's a liquid but it's really neat. It's really dangerous so we're not supposed to be able to have it, but I've seen it before and it's really neat.

Answer 8

It will bead up just like water on a waxed car hood and roll around.
Just be careful when you are handling this stuff because it is toxic, it does absorb through your skin and it can make you sick or if you get enough in you it will kill you...

Answer 9

it is radioactive, not poison, and you can gate irradiate, by
simply staying in the same room with the mercury.

Answer 10

I am not sure what it will do physically but I am pretty sure that it is dangerous and poisonous so be careful if you decide to experiment with it.