![]() To forego reeling off a huge list of weird and wonderful uses for mercury, I would just briefly mention my personal favourite, fishing floats, used to maintain in an regular wobble on the water surface, the mercury float proves so alluring to fish that even now after its use has been globally banned, there is active research to find a replacement to do an equal job. From this point on, the hazards of mercury were well documented but despite its toxicity, it continued to find many uses in everyday applications throughout the last century. The link almost certainly inspired Lewis Carroll to dream up the Mad Hatter, although much debate hangs over whether he is in fact displaying the symptoms of mercury poisoning. The madness of many millionaires was blamed on the extensive use of mercuric nitrate in the hat industry and the phrase m ad as a hatter was coined. Skipping forward to the 18 th Century and for the first time, psychological illnesses were attributed to mercury exposure. This of course was not the first time that man has been lowered in by mercury. Surely even in 1972, this kind of activity was seen as an exceptionally bad idea. Amazement not just at the fact that mercury was so dense it could support a man, but more pressingly that the man in question was very likely giving himself a lethal dose of mercury poisoning in one fatal pose. ![]() I've been unequivocally proved wrong, but within a fraction of a second, this feeling had been transformed to sheer amazement. Enough it turns out to support a man of average build and yes, if you type man sitting on mercury into Google, you'll quickly find a 1972 photograph, published in National Geographic of a man suited and booted, sat unaided, albeit a little nervously, on top of a tank of rippling mercury. "No." I confidently said, adding rather smugly, "it is nowhere near dense enough." The next morning I was rudely awakened by my ringing mobile I was wrong! Elemental mercury, a liquid at room temperature, is 13 times denser than water. ![]() Political stability of top reserve holderĪ percentile rank for the political stability of the country with the largest reserves, derived from World Bank governance indicators.Ĭould a man walk across a swimming pool filled with mercury? Don't ask me how the conversation had reached this point, but being surrounded by friends, who would, it is fair to say, describe themselves as science illiterate, I knew it was up to me, the token scientist around the table, to give the definitive answer. The higher the value, the larger risk there is to supply.Ī percentile rank for the political stability of the top producing country, derived from World Bank governance indicators. The percentage of the world reserves located in the country with the largest reserves. The higher the value, the larger risk there is to supply. The percentage of an element produced in the top producing country. Low = substitution is possible with little or no economic and/or performance impact Medium = substitution is possible but there may be an economic and/or performance impact High = substitution not possible or very difficult. The availability of suitable substitutes for a given commodity. A higher recycling rate may reduce risk to supply. The percentage of a commodity which is recycled. The number of atoms of the element per 1 million atoms of the Earth’s crust. This is calculated by combining the scores for crustal abundance, reserve distribution, production concentration, substitutability, recycling rate and political stability scores. The Chemical Abstracts Service registry number is a unique identifier of a particular chemical, designed to prevent confusion arising from different languages and naming systems.ĭata for this section been provided by the British Geological Survey.Īn integrated supply risk index from 1 (very low risk) to 10 (very high risk). Where more than one isotope exists, the value given is the abundance weighted average.Ītoms of the same element with different numbers of neutrons. This is approximately the sum of the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus. The mass of an atom relative to that of carbon-12. The transition of a substance directly from the solid to the gas phase without passing through a liquid phase.ĭensity is the mass of a substance that would fill 1 cm 3 at room temperature. The temperature at which the liquid–gas phase change occurs. The temperature at which the solid–liquid phase change occurs. The arrangements of electrons above the last (closed shell) noble gas. These blocks are named for the characteristic spectra they produce: sharp (s), principal (p), diffuse (d), and fundamental (f). The atomic number of each element increases by one, reading from left to right.Įlements are organised into blocks by the orbital type in which the outer electrons are found. Members of a group typically have similar properties and electron configurations in their outer shell.Ī horizontal row in the periodic table.
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