[sdiy] DONT TOUCH

[Stefano Costa]

studio271 wrote:

> When I first thought about what happens when mercury hits the
> ground, I thought in terms of it being the same as a water spill;
> everything stays together, very little splatter. However, when
> mercury spills, it instantly breaks into thousands of little round
> pellets about .2mm in diameter.

Correct. The inter-atomic forces force this behaviour.

> Whats worse is that they then
> proceed to cover the entire area of the surface you happened to
> drop the stuff on. Very big problem.

Basically, since drops are very small (but if more drops join toghether,
they stay united), they have very little friction, so they move quickly
from initial momentum force.

> That's definitely why those
> switches are encased in VERY thick glass (plastic won't offer good
> leak protection for the joints to the electrodes, I think).
>
> Just thought I'd offer that little tidbit o' info.
>
> -271
>
> BTW - touching mercury itself will permenantly color that part of
> your skin brown. Not a fun "battle scar" to have...

It's very strange this, because mercury in normal ambient condition
(temperature, pH...) does not react with human skin. Maybe you have
touched something before that has reacted with mercury.

Stefano
(once upon a time a chemist)