Cool Fact: Melting Metal

[The Learning Kingdom]

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   The Learning Kingdom's Cool Fact of the Day for October 13, 1999
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                    What metal melts in your hand?

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The silvery metal gallium melts at 29.8 degrees C (85.6 degrees F),
so if you hold it in your hand it will melt.  Gallium is element
number 31 on the Periodic Table.  It is similar to aluminum, but
heavier.

There are a few other metals that would melt in your hand, some with
which you would not want to try the experiment.  Cesium is element
number 55, an alkali metal that would not only melt, but would also
react violently with your skin and possibly catch fire.

Another metal that is liquid at room temperature is mercury, element
number 80.  Mercury is much heavier, but it looks very similar to
liquid gallium.  It is a poison easily absorbed through the skin, and
therefore should not be touched.

More about gallium:
http://www.mcp-group.com/HTML/gallium.html

Gallium's low melting point gives it interesting uses.  Here's a
technical report about one of them:
http://www.spie.org/web/oer/february/feb99/ltconstr.html

Gallium can mix with other metals to form amalgam, a Cool Word:
http://www.cool-word.com/archive/1999/10/13.html

A Cool Fact about mercury:
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1999/08/10.html


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