Mercury (Hg)

Mercury

Ah, Mercury the 80^th element on the periodic table and of the most interesting too. It is only one of two elements that are a liquid at a room temperature. Because its melting point is at -38.37 degrees Celsius in its pure state it is almost always found as a liquid. At room temperature it has a density of 13.46grams per cubic centimeter, so when it is put in water it will sink to the bottom of the container. It slowly evaporates if it kept at room temperature. When kept in dry air it is pretty stable, but when it is located in moist air it will react with the oxygen in the air to form a gray oxide coating. Mercury is highly recognizable as a silver-grayish liquid and less so in its solid form when it is cooled down.  It is classified as a transition metal because it has thirty four different isotopes. Its element symbol is Hg which is short for the Latin word hydrargyrum (liquid silver). The Greek scientist Aristotle is actually responsible for coining the phrase. The English word Mercury is named after the planet Mercury. The exact discover of mercury is unknown but it has been known since the ancient times as mercury has been found in an Egyptian tomb dating back to 1500bc. It was the most important of all metals after gold to alchemists of the Middle Ages because it offered the path to gold and represented the property of fluidity better than any other metal. Chinese emperors tried to increase their lifespan through the use of mercury, but it probably shortened their lives because now we know that mercury is toxic. It is likely that solid mercury was obtained for the first time Adam Braun and Mikhail Lomonosov in 1759 by freezing a mercury thermometer in snow and nitric acid. Mercury was also a vital tool in the discovery of important element oxygen. When mercury oxide was heated and it created a gas that made a candle burn at a faster rate, oxygen was discovered. It has a variety of different uses such as thermometers, manometers, barometers, fluorescent lamps, and batteries. Various different compounds of Mercury are used in medicine, cosmetics, dentistry, and agriculture. It even used to be a popular play toy due to its high surface tension which allowed it to break into beads and then reform into a liquid. However it is not as prominent today as it used to be, because mercury and most of its compounds are toxic. It can easily be inhaled, swallowed, and can even cause harm through contact with the skin. It is pretty rare to find plain mercury in nature, but it can be extracted from mercury sulfide. When the mercury sulfide it heated up the mercury vapor that is created will condense and form the liquid mercury. Today mercury has a much smaller role in today’s world than fifty years ago because of the health concerns it presents but when used carefully with the proper safety precautions mercury can be one of the most interesting elements to use and study.

Some cool youtube videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&NR=1&v=Z7Ilxsu-JlY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX7xeF-ywxc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6631u7d4E0&feature=related