Would mercury be a good WC coolant?

A very large pile of suger and a bottle of conc sulphuric acid to make a volcano was always a good one too.
 
Me too... back when teachers were real teachers, students were real students yada yada yada...

Indeed, remember blowing blobs of the stuff around the desk.

Over in Biology we were given lances to ***** our fingers and did our own blood typing tests.

Health & Safety? Pff! :D
 
It makes me laugh how people go on about the high toxicity of mercury .... which is very true its the most toxic metal on the planet that is non radioactive.

Wonder how many of you have NHS 'silver' fillings ? fillings that when you ask your dentist or look up what there made from actually contain as much as 50% mercury and are placed bout 5 inches from your brain.

I know people probably wont belive me but look it up before you flame me pls!

Good old socialised 'health' care huh?
 
The biggest downside is that as of 1/7/07 it's been illegal to sell Mercury anywhere within the EU. Existing stocks are being allowed to be used up, but eventually you won't be able to buy anything with mercury in it. The issue is how to dispose of it as it's horribly toxic, even in trace amounts.
 
to which the teacher said "DROP IT NOW!"

Don't get it.

Nowadays my teacher does experiments with the group 1 elements, behind a plastic window, so we don't get damaged, was funny once when he dropped a whole rock in instead of cutting a minute piece of, and the bowl of water exploded all over him :D
 
It makes me laugh how people go on about the high toxicity of mercury .... which is very true its the most toxic metal on the planet that is non radioactive.

Wonder how many of you have NHS 'silver' fillings ? fillings that when you ask your dentist or look up what there made from actually contain as much as 50% mercury and are placed bout 5 inches from your brain.

I know people probably wont belive me but look it up before you flame me pls!

Good old socialised 'health' care huh?

I use ceramic :) no way am I going to fill my teeth with mercury.
 
Don't get it.


Just the moisture on your hands is enough to react sodium sufficiently vigorously to give you a nasty burn.

I rememeber my Head of Chemistry telling me about how, during the 70s, he was told to get rid of about 5kgs of sodium that had gone past its use by date, so he took it to Cleethorpes pier and threw it in the sea to see what would happen.
 
Just the moisture on your hands is enough to react sodium sufficiently vigorously to give you a nasty burn.

I rememeber my Head of Chemistry telling me about how, during the 70s, he was told to get rid of about 5kgs of sodium that had gone past its use by date, so he took it to Cleethorpes pier and threw it in the sea to see what would happen.

Is that the one where a tiny grain will fizz and jump around on the surface of the water?

and using a sugarcube sized lump will cause a big bang, shatter the water container etc??

i always wondered what a huge lump of that would do ... i had great plans of buying a ton of it, dropping it from a helicopter into the sea..
 
Just the moisture on your hands is enough to react sodium sufficiently vigorously to give you a nasty burn.

I rememeber my Head of Chemistry telling me about how, during the 70s, he was told to get rid of about 5kgs of sodium that had gone past its use by date, so he took it to Cleethorpes pier and threw it in the sea to see what would happen.

It would burn a very nice deep hole in your hand. ;)
 
Must be about 8 or 9 years ago (24 now..)

we got to pick some up in the palm of our hands, push down on it in a bowl, submerge fingers etc..

im 23 and mercury was band in schools long before i got to secondary school, or at least in my school

It makes me laugh how people go on about the high toxicity of mercury .... which is very true its the most toxic metal on the planet that is non radioactive.

Wonder how many of you have NHS 'silver' fillings ? fillings that when you ask your dentist or look up what there made from actually contain as much as 50% mercury and are placed bout 5 inches from your brain.

I know people probably wont belive me but look it up before you flame me pls!

Good old socialised 'health' care huh?

its not actually that bad in filling form, but when people realise it and demand it to be removed (which is actually illegal unless it is absolutley necessary) thats when the toxicity can damage people

also mercury amalgum fillings last a fair bit longer than ceramic ones, gold would be the best material.
 
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And there's nothing wrong in using lead pipes for water supplies to houses in my day too.

Wibble, wibble.:p
 
Mercury in dental fillings is far from safe ... if you dont belive that then tell me why the swedish government are paying YES PAYING its citizens to have thier mercury amalgam fillings removed because of the health hazard it poses.

Also you might want to do a bit of research on this site ... the international academy of oral medicene and toxicology or IOAMT for short and look at the video showing mercury vapour being released from a filling after gentle agaitation ... like when you chew your food.
http://www.iaomt.org/

Also have you heard the phrase 'mad as a hatter' ?
That comes from the fact that hatters used to use mercury to turn fur into felt and the resulting mercury vapour exposure sent em a bit funny in the head.

lopkinfop i do wonder where you get your information from ?
 
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