Brief description: mercury is the only common metal liquid at room temperatures. Mercury is sometimes called quicksilver. It rarely occurs free in nature and is found mainly in cinnabar ore (HgS) in Spain and Italy. It is a heavy, silvery-white liquid metal. It is not that good of a conductor of heat other than other metals but is a good conductor of electricity.
Organic mercury compounds are both important and dangerous. Methyl mercury is a lethal pollutant found in rivers and lakes. The main source of pollution is industrial wastes settling to the river and lake bottoms which is hurting the environment badly. Mercury melts at room temperature, so that's why it is mostly in liquid form. Mercury, when poorer on to any surfaces, tends to form into a ball. When something is put on it, it acts like a covering, like for an example, when you put your fingers in water they get wet, but if you put your fingers in mercury, they don't get mercury all over your fingers because it is much more dense and has a higher surface tension than water.
Some cool facts about MERCURY:
- The Romans modified the Greek name slightly, referring to mercury as Hydragyrum, from which we get mercury’s modern chemical symbol Hg.
- Almost any small but heavy object can float on mercury because it is so dense.
- Mercury has high surface tension, therefor when it gets spilled, it splits up into tiny little beads.
CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO :D its cool ;) but if u want to see just how she handles the mercury, then go to 1:40 in the video :)
This is also a great video, where the person is experimenting with mercury in lots of different ways!
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