Quicksand Fans

What happens when science, boredom, and 240lbs of Mercury collide? Watch and find out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvVaaZ21C44

Pretty cool

Just a thought: say if you fill a bathtub full of mercury and you get into the tub, would it crush you? After all, you are encased in metal, and it does have weight and mass!

That was fun to watch!

mudmaiden wrote:Just a thought: say if you fill a bathtub full of mercury and you get into the tub, would it crush you? After all, you are encased in metal, and it does have weight and mass!

I think that you would just float on the surface, since mercury is substantially denser than a human body.

Yea, you would not sink in at all, it'd be like a waterbed.
I know theoretically it's safe but I cringed so hard when he stuck his hand in it lol.

It would not crush you but it WOULD poison you. Note that the "Mad-Hatter" of Lewis Carroll was grounded in the observation that people who used mercury to make felt for fashionable hats at that time often became insane due to mercury poisoning.

mudmaiden wrote:Just a thought: say if you fill a bathtub full of mercury and you get into the tub, would it crush you? After all, you are encased in metal, and it does have weight and mass!

Mercury is weird because it can be practically harmless or incredibly deadly depending on it's state. At room temp as a liquid you can stick your hand in it like this guy did with no ill effects (disclaimer, do not attempt to bathe in Mercury lol). If you get it boiling and it becomes a vapor then it's INCREDIBLY toxic, because the vaporized particles are small enough to cross through your lungs into your bloodstream. Alot of old timey industry that used Mercury involved doing this, that's why everybody who worked with it ended up with the twitching horrors........

Maybe they need to check the air at my office for mercury vapor- that would explain a lot.

Mynock wrote:Mercury is weird because it can be practically harmless or incredibly deadly depending on it's state. At room temp as a liquid you can stick your hand in it like this guy did with no ill effects (disclaimer, do not attempt to bathe in Mercury lol). If you get it boiling and it becomes a vapor then it's INCREDIBLY toxic, because the vaporized particles are small enough to cross through your lungs into your bloodstream. Alot of old timey industry that used Mercury involved doing this, that's why everybody who worked with it ended up with the twitching horrors........