I want to play with a room temp liquid metal.

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

If you're dumb enough to come into direct physical contact with mercury,
don't worry, you're perfectly safe!.
Since you can't possible get any dumber :laugh:

 

[DAGTA]

Originally posted by: cscpianoman
Bromine and Mercury are the only two elements that are liquid at room temp. Mercury is toxic in sufficient quantities, but the biggest issue is there is no mechanism in the body to remove mercury, so it is cumulative.

Some foods/supplements can help pull metals out of the body. Chlorella can help eliminate mercury. Still better to not get it into your body. Unfortunately, many of us have fillings in our teeth that contain some mercury.

 

[mercanucaribe]

Originally posted by: Jimmah
Bah, I can't remember what letal is liquid if you hold onto it in your hand but solid at room temp, might be my mind playing tricks on me but I seem to remember this rather vividly.

That's chocolate you're thinking of, but not M&Ms.

 

[Mark R]

Originally posted by: Jimmah
Bah, I can't remember what letal is liquid if you hold onto it in your hand but solid at room temp, might be my mind playing tricks on me but I seem to remember this rather vividly.

As mentioned earlier in the thread this metal is Gallium.

Before I wrote my first reply, I kept thinking it was gadolinium. Then i realised that gadolinium is the one that is (ferro)magnetic while sitting on a table, but loses its (ferro)magnetism when you hold it in your hand.

 

[smack Down]

Originally posted by: Heisenberg

Originally posted by: Mark R
Yeah, you can get less toxic liquid metal alloys. They're used in thermometers.

If you buy a thermometer today, it won't have mercury in - it'll have a special metal alloy called galinstan [a mixture of gallium, indium and tin (latin: stannum)]. You should be able to get it from a decent chemical supplier - however it's quite expensive (about $2-3/g I think).

Mercury was a common substance in schools, and attitudes to safety were considerably different in the past. It was common practice to store bar magnets in a bowl of mercury, so they floated on the surface (you just picked one off when you wanted to use it), and it was perfectly acceptable to allow pupils to dip their hands in it, etc.

A lot of thermometers today use alcohol-based solutions as well.

Alcohol-based ones suck. My school got all freaked out about mecury and replaced the real thermometers with crapy expensive alcohol ones and they where always off by three or degree and the teachers had a hidden stach of real ones to break out when a acturate temp was need.

 

[Hyperion042]

You're looking for one of a few metal alloys known for having super-low melting points. Pure Gallium has a melting point of around body temp (About 86 degrees F), and so will melt gradually as you hold it in your hand. There are, however, a number of alloys of Gallium that depress this melting point by a bit or more and make it liquid at room temperature, most notably a particular Gallium-Iridium-Tin alloy (You can order that here, says Google: https://www.scitoyscatalog.com/Merchant...en=CTGY&Store_Code=SC&Category_Code=H). There's actually a much, much, lower freezing point alloy of Sodium, Cesium and Rubidium, I believe, but it's understandably uber-unstable in air. Also mind, if you muck around with Gallium then it will react quite readily with air to form a layer of Gallium Oxide atop the bead of liquid, making a kind of crust that's somewhat undesirable.

 

[tweakmm]

Originally posted by: smack Down
Alcohol-based ones suck. My school got all freaked out about mecury and replaced the real thermometers with crapy expensive alcohol ones and they where always off by three or degree and the teachers had a hidden stach of real ones to break out when a acturate temp was need.

1: "You got the stuff?"
2: "Yeah, you got the money."
1: "Yeah, you're not trying to screw me over here, this is what we were talking about."
2: "Chill out hommie, you know I don't mess around, this is legit."
1: "100%?"
2: "100% mercury. You know I don't roll any other way."
1: "Alright, lemme try one out." /cracks open thermometer, empties mercury on hand, plays with it, eyes close. "Ah....... that's the stuff."

 

[PrayForDeath]

Originally posted by: tweakmm

Originally posted by: smack Down
Alcohol-based ones suck. My school got all freaked out about mecury and replaced the real thermometers with crapy expensive alcohol ones and they where always off by three or degree and the teachers had a hidden stach of real ones to break out when a acturate temp was need.

1: "You got the stuff?"
2: "Yeah, you got the money."
1: "Yeah, you're not trying to screw me over here, this is what we were talking about."
2: "Chill out hommie, you know I don't mess around, this is legit."
1: "100%?"
2: "100% mercury. You know I don't roll any other way."
1: "Alright, lemme try one out." /cracks open thermometer, empties mercury on hand, plays with it, eyes close. "Ah....... that's the stuff."

:laugh:

The liquid metal VGA Cooler that was supposed to be released does not used mercury; it uses something else, forgot what it was though.

 

[DrPizza]

Quite commonplace for children 25 years ago to handle mercury in school.
IIRC, while it's absorbed (slowly) through the skin and the effects are cumulative (the body can't get rid of it),
the bigger problem is inhalation of mercury vapor. That sort of goes hand in hand with handling it though. Just hold your breath when you're playing with it and you'll be fine 🙂