Well I bought a nice mercury thermometer online last week and I recieved it today. I opened up the package to reveal a semi-hard plastic tube containing a crushed thermometer (over a foot long to give you an idea of the amount of mercury involved). But it gets worse. A defect in the casing allowed several droplets of mercury to come in contact with my skin when I pulled the case out of the packaging (remind me never to trust USPS again). After thoroughly rinsing my hands I realized that mercury had spilled on the floor, counter and desk in my house. I quickly locked my cats in another room and began the tedious job of cleaning up the mercury (in accordance to standard lab technique). On top of this I also failed a ridiculously hard midterm today. Today just plain sucked. Here are some pictures of the mercury mixed with grains of glass collected from the broken thermometer (1.9g to 2.0g): http://simla.colostate.edu/~starfigh/DSCF0231.JPG http://simla.colostate.edu/~starfigh/DSCF0232.JPG http://simla.colostate.edu/~starfigh/DSCF0234.JPG Ho hum.
I love mercury...liquid metal...the concept of that haha It isn't poisonous unless you swallow it. If it gets in contact with your skin, just wash it well and you'll be ok..
No man, it'll seep through your skin. Even after you wash it off. Mercury is just... bad for you. Though it does look cool.
Yeah, the phrase "mad as a hatter" came about because people who made top hats used elementary mercury and tended to go insane from working with it. The amount that came in contact with my isn't enough to do any real damage, but it was still a bummer cleaning up. I remember one time in chemistry lab I was heating a flask in some warm water (like everyone else in the class), and the flask just imploded. The GTA yelled at me and I yelled back at him. It was a fun day . And next semester I shall have more chemistry! Yah! Hehe.
yeah dude, back in the 60's they would give kids mercury to mess with in class. My dad was telling me about it. He said it's some cool stuff. In my Chem class in highschool, we were makin somthing...I don't really remember, my friend and I just started throwing stuff in, and heated it on the bunson burner. It blew out of the test tube, and went all over the blinds! So even to this day, one blind has black shit all over it!! Remember me?!? J.D?!??! ....remember I was lighting my farts in chemistry, and I singed my ballsack with the bunson burner?!? ....no...... ...man...I still can't grow hair on my left nut...
Lol, that was a good movie...I loved his costume ( i think it was an eagle)... Then they rob the grave, put the persons skeleton in the car, and push her BMW off a cliff haha.. it was wonderful.