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<\/a><\/p>\nProperties of Mercury<\/h3>\n
Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature.\u00a0 It is silvery, so it is sometimes called \u201cquicksilver.\u201d\u00a0 Mercury liquid is much denser than water and has a higher surface tension, so that it beads up but does not wet the surface of the substance it floats upon.\u00a0 Like other transition metals, it forms compounds at more than one oxidation level.\u00a0 It has 7 different isotopes.<\/p>\n
Mercury is a relatively uncommon element, and is rarely found free in nature.\u00a0 It is produced from a red ore called cinnabar, mercury (II) sulfide (HgS).\u00a0 Since ancient times, cinnabar was heated to release the mercury vapor. When the vapor cooled, it formed liquid mercury.\u00a0 Cinnabar ore was used in cave paintings in Spain and France because of its red color.\u00a0 Mercury itself was highly prized in ancient China, and believed to have mystical properties.\u00a0 It has been found in Egyptian tombs, and was used during Roman times to purify gold and silver.\u00a0 Alchemists believed that all metals contained some mercury, so that by extracting mercury from them, the metal could be transformed into precious metals such as gold.<\/p>\n Mercury is used now in electrolytic cells, some electrical switches and relays, because of its conduction properties, as well as in fluorescent and mercury-vapor lamps.\u00a0 It was once widely contained in fever thermometers and blood-pressure monitors, but those uses were outlawed because of the metal\u2019s toxicity.\u00a0 It is still used in some scientific monitors, however.<\/p>\n Mercury and its compounds are highly toxic.\u00a0 During Roman times, prisoners were sentenced to work in cinnabar mines and in processes involving mercury production because the poison would shorten their lives.\u00a0 During the 1800\u2019s the makers of hats prepared beaver pelts and felting using mercury nitrite.\u00a0 Workers inhaled mercury vapor from working in close quarters, resulting in a neurological illness with tremors and dementia, called \u201cmad hatter disease\u201d.\u00a0 In the late 1800s, a new process that did not use mercury was developed, although the phrase \u201cmad as a hatter\u201d remained.\u00a0 In modern times, mercury poisoning is often caused from eating fish that have high levels of mercury from pollution.<\/p>\n Interested in science tutoring services<\/a>? Learn more about how we are assisting thousands of students each academic year.<\/p>\n SchoolTutoring Academy<\/span> is the premier educational services company for K-12 and college students. We offer tutoring programs for students in K-12, AP classes, and college. To learn more about how we help parents and students in Taos, NM visit: Tutoring in Taos, NM<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Overview The element mercury (Hg) has atomic number 80, and is considered a transition metal.\u00a0 It is liquid at room temperature.\u00a0 Although mercury is highly toxic, it is a good electrical conductor, and is used in some electrical switches. Properties of Mercury Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature.\u00a0 It is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3676,3957,3956],"class_list":["post-8986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry","tag-mercury","tag-mercury-poisoning","tag-transition-metal"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8986\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\nHistory of Mercury<\/h3>\n
Uses of Mercury<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nMad Hatter or Mercury Poisoning?<\/h3>\n