2007-03-06 10:21:45 · 5 answers · asked by ulonda f 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
It is the only metal that melts at room temperature. Mercury has an affinity for gold, silver and several other metals. Which means that when these metals in powder form are introduced to mercury the mercury attaches to them and engulfs them. The gold miners knew this and used mercury to pick up little flakes of gold in their pans. Then they would boil the gold containing mercury over a wood fire to reclaim the gold. Unfortunately they didn't know that the mercury fumes were highly toxic and many of them died and the others went crazy because the fumes affected their brains.
The hat makers of olden times used mercury to form the felt of the hats. As you can imagine they were destined to the same fate as the miners. Which brought about the term "Mad Hatter"
The gold domes that you see on the capitol buildings of many cities were accomplished by making a copper dome over the building then the workmen would take finely ground gold dust and mix it with mercury then put in a goatskin bag and rub the bag over the copper roof. The gold,mercury amalgam would then be transferred to the copper and would stick to it . The roofers would then take torches and hold them to the roof to boil away the mercury. You can guess what happened to the roofers.
So you can see that mercury has had a long interesting history.
I hope this has helped you.
2007-03-06 10:27:55 · answer #1 · answered by H.C.Will 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is a liquid at room temperature. A Prof. Schmidbauer in Germany has proposed that the liquidity of mercury and the yellow color of gold are owing to relativistic properties of the innermost electrons of these atoms of these elements. In particular, the innermost electrons of mercury and gold have to travel so fast in order not to be sucked into the highly positively charged nuclei that they must be going about 1/10 the speed of light. The high speeds increase their mass, giving them an undue influence on all the other electrons of the atom. This would make a good science project for someone.
2007-03-06 18:39:24 · answer #2 · answered by steve_geo1 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it is a free flowing metallic liquid. The element itself is not that bad. But its compounds (mercury salts) are very poisonous. Also at high temperatures its vapor is very harmful.
2007-03-06 18:32:58 · answer #3 · answered by sammy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's a liquid at room temperature, and is capable of being used to measure temperature (no other metal is a liquid at room temperature). :D
2007-03-06 18:30:55 · answer #4 · answered by HSR 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it is 34 times more dence than water
2007-03-06 18:30:04 · answer #5 · answered by kay 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋