Cannonball.  Vat of mercury

Posted by on May 20, 2013 Leave a comment (8) Go to comments

I mean, why wouldn't you drop the cannonball in?

Google+: Reshared 8 times
Google+: View post on Google+

Google+
  1. Cory Westgate May 20, 2013 at 8:02 pm

    AWESOME. :ahem: I mean, splashing Mercury around seems like a bad idea. :straightens tie:

    Reply
  2. Frank Rehse May 20, 2013 at 8:04 pm

    Breathing in the general vicinity of a vat of Mercury seems like a bad idea, too.

    Reply
  4. Kelli Halliburton May 20, 2013 at 8:19 pm

    Pure elemental liquid mercury is actually the least toxic form of it.

    Reply
  5. Wolfgang Rupprecht May 20, 2013 at 8:21 pm

    Interesting to see an obvious thing confirmed.  The  ball's float line is approximately half way up the ball which confirms the roughly 2:1 density ratio.

    Now, who would be careless enough to be around an open pool of mercury like???  I take it this is from some 60's film for school children before OSHA et al started to have enough power to prevent such work environments.

    Reply
  6. Wolfgang Rupprecht May 20, 2013 at 8:28 pm

    "In humans, approximately 80% of inhaled mercury vapor is absorbed via the respiratory tract, where it enters the circulatory system and is distributed throughout the body.[21] Chronic exposure by inhalation, even at low concentrations in the range 0.7–42 μg/m3, has been shown in case control studies to cause effects such as tremors, impaired cognitive skills, and sleep disturbance in workers.[22][23]"

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning

    Reply
  7. Mike L. May 21, 2013 at 3:35 am

    1) He seems old enough to not care about long-time damages

    2) I hope the room is cold enough to keep the ammount of gaseous mercury low

    3) AWESOME!!!

    Reply
  8. Chris Larose May 21, 2013 at 12:35 pm

    Note: Mercury vaporizes at room temperature.

    Reply

Leave a Reply