• Question: what is the melting tempreture of murcary? (the metal )

    Asked by leafeon252 to Laura, Nicola, Norman, Sandra, Thanasis on 14 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Nicola Wardrop

      Nicola Wardrop answered on 14 Mar 2013:

      Mercury melts at a very low temperature, so when it is at room temperature it will be a liquid – have you seen mercury? It’s lovely and shiny, but can be very dangerous! The melting temperature is about -39 degrees.

    • Photo: Laura Soul

      Laura Soul answered on 14 Mar 2013:

      Yup, it has a really low melting point compared to lots of other metals like Nicola says. Mercury is very strange, its really dense so feels super heavy if you pick up a jar of it, and you can float pound coins on top of it. Issac Newton did experiments with it (mainly because he thought he might be able to turn it in to gold) but he tasted it a lot and ended up giving himself mercury poisoning!

    • Photo: Sandra Phinbow

      Sandra Phinbow answered on 17 Mar 2013:

      Because I am old (though not as old as Norman teehee) I remember the old mercury thermometers in science at school. We would accidently on purpose drop them onthe floor so they would break open. The mercury would roll across the floor like little silver balls.

      I found a really fun youtbue video of this

      Don’t try to do anything like this though

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