The take home message is that keeping things dusty can, under some very specific conditions, save your life.

@vizionthing

8 жыл бұрын

I so have to tell my mum.

@lewismassie

8 жыл бұрын

My mum must hear of this too

@baranxlr

8 жыл бұрын

ur mom

@johnnybravo2926

8 жыл бұрын

Now I have an excuse to not clean a room

@wascawywabbit0987

3 жыл бұрын

Works on my car.

That was such a clever way to show us the vapor coming off the mercury, thanks!

Mercury vapor is the most enchanting form of the metal, people go crazy for it.

@0osk

8 жыл бұрын

hah, i get it

@Solocat1

5 жыл бұрын

Mad as a hatter

@wascawywabbit0987

3 жыл бұрын

@@Solocat1 From mercury splatter.

@matta5160

9 ай бұрын

Yes thats why lighthouse keepers used to go crazy. At first people thought it was loneliness and isolation but it later turned out to be the mercury vapor

All the fun stuff is poisonous, explosive, or some other type of dangerous. Thats what makes them fun.

@mohamadshaheerasyraffbinsh3093

8 жыл бұрын

Getting an A in your test is not dangerous at all.

@GarioTheRock

8 жыл бұрын

+shaheer asyraff Achievement =/= fun Why? Achievement = gratification Gratification =/= fun Why? 1.) Sense of gratification/achievement is a result of serotonin being present in the brain 2.) Fun is a result of dopamine being present in the brain, why you laugh, and enjoy media Therefore, no, not like getting an A on a test.

@mohamadshaheerasyraffbinsh3093

8 жыл бұрын

GarioTheRock Someone just can't have literal consent.

@subhashpani

8 жыл бұрын

+GarioTheRock in that case exercises is fun too ?

Mercury travels through the air due to the effects of his winged sandals.

@ryanherzog272

8 жыл бұрын

This comment is underrated.

@sergiossg8902

4 жыл бұрын

Cool joke.

And then he drank it through a straw at the end, because it's ok to drink :D

@DrFurey

8 жыл бұрын

I think he used a Pasteur pipette and not a straw

@RealCadde

8 жыл бұрын

So he's a fancy drinker. Big deal.

@EpicB

8 жыл бұрын

Kenneth Binaday Because it's mercury. Mercury liquid isn't as toxic as the vapor, organomercury componds (Many of which are among the worst of the worst for really toxic componds) or its salts, but still.

@JeroenDStout

8 жыл бұрын

Hair of the dog that bit you, old boy.

@RealCadde

7 жыл бұрын

***** Welcome to more than 6 months ago. When you get older you will understand sarcasm.

I honestly have to thank you from teaching more about chemistry to beyond what I already have leaned about it and to the professor you have taught me a lot from my common knowledge of chemicals and elements

Very cool video!

@TheDiabeticChicken

8 жыл бұрын

I was thinking of you while watching this, and there you are!

@taofledermaus

8 жыл бұрын

I must have gotten ten pm's and FB messages telling me about this video. Hey, I'm all ready a sub!

@osimmac

8 жыл бұрын

outside the air is almost constantly moving. he's absolutely fine.

@InuYashaSama09

8 жыл бұрын

Ofcourse you would be here as well lol. :)

@user-ov7ci8tp8v

2 жыл бұрын

Think you can pull off Mercury shotgun slugs now? Haha

Excellent demonstration! I love these sort of experiments where you can directly observe how things behave and develop an intuitive feel for it, as opposed to working off theory and measurements.

If you want to see a more practical application for Mercury vapour, you can see how it is used to make photographic images in the Daguerrotype process, which in fact was an early form of chemical vapour deposition, used in industry today to create modern electronic circuits! A lot of old Victorian photo processes led to discoveries in science that we still use today, it's a fascinating subject! :)

@AnalogProcess

Жыл бұрын

Amazing to see this comment, yes! I make Daguerrotypes, and use Mercury. Very scary material, knowing that each time I am exposed to it, it accumulates in me.

thanx doc.that was a timely message for those that work with mercury like me,a placer miner.

This was an incredible video. Thank you so much.

I recall my dad, when I was quite young, telling me of an experiment he performed while obtaining a chemistry degree. He attempted to measure whether dangerous levels of mercury vapor would be produced at room temperature from the neck of standard containers. He said it seemed that unless you really got your face into it, you wouldn't have much of a problem... I'll have to ask him about it again some time.

I have dozens of vacuum tubes, mostly very large power rectifiers, with many tablespoons of mercury in each. Sometimes the envelope (glass) looks very dirty, but if I fire them up (apply power to the heater), the mercury literally condenses, evaporates with continued heat, and you end up with a very shiny, 'clean-looking' tube again at some point. So I knew mercury vapor was used quite often in a vacuum, but I had no idea it could evaporate like that at atmospheric pressure! Thanks for the new knowledge. :)

Very cool video! I hope there are more coming soon...

Fascinating as always

What an elegant demonstration! You've out done yourself again Professor Poliakoff!

What an awesome experiment! I've never Thought, that mercury can produce such an amount of vapour. I think all chemistry students should have seen this experiment, before working with mercury thermometers, or mercury itself.

this experiment is so clever ! i love it !

Fascinating, ty for this!

Hello, I love your videos! Could you please make a video on metal alloys with low melting points like fields metal or galinstan?

Thank you so very much! I didn't know about the vapor. Even though I don't use mercury very often, almost never, I have used it and have been exposed to it. Next time around I'll take precautions against the vapor it gives off. Thanks again.

Periodic Videos and Numberphile are the two channels I enjoy watching although I was never interested in science due to my school subjects. I love how you can convey knowledge to your viewers while keeping it interesting. Keep it up :)

@Kycilak

8 жыл бұрын

Beside these two there is also Sixty Symbols. It is physical channel and has the same spirit as these two. I recommend you to check it.

@squidgama

8 жыл бұрын

Lukáš J. Thanks :)

I love their videos on mercury and dangerous elements haha :)

Could you make a video about thiomersal and its effects? I just thought it would be a nice addition to this video

I expected to see a faint amount of mercury, but that was really a torrent of mercury vapor! When I saw it, I got a cold chill up my spine for a moment.

Very nice video!

Waited for this episode for a while

Prof. Poliakoff is one of those people i really enjoy listening to. Doesn't really matter what the subject is about

Make a video about extracting/refining metals.

Nice video.

Dude you've done great work please take a break I don't want you working so hard

Hello, thank you for your video, it would be interesting to know how much evaporates at the dental clinic 😯still many people not aware of it

wow I thought mercury was more stable. So if I had an open dish of mercury it would evaporate over some period of time?

@gfyourself

8 жыл бұрын

i'm curious about this too. i had no idea it let off any vapor. i'd be fascinated if it evaporated like other liquids. yeah science.

@ZOMGGaming

8 жыл бұрын

Well yea most liquids do

@TheToby272

8 жыл бұрын

Very slowly yes.

@DrCrazySymbols

8 жыл бұрын

All liquids have an equilibrium vapour pressure to which they tend towards. In fact, so do solids, the just evaporate much more slowly (providing it is a solid at the same temperature as its surroundings).

@DrCrazySymbols

8 жыл бұрын

Mercury evaporates at a rate of, I think 1/1600 times the rate of water at room temperature. You can think of vapour pressure in terms of humidity of any substance, not just water.

great video, i loved the technique with using the lamp to see the vapor coming off the mercury. i wish there was another video expounding on the possibility of the mercury vapor being contained in a closed copper loop and its potential to possibly pass a current through it. or perhaps how one could change mercury into gold using high voltage electricity. maybe say using hydrogen cell batteries to generate enough voltage. idk if these things are possible, but it would be nice to see it.

@abigailcooling6604

Жыл бұрын

You can't change mercury into gold using electricity, no matter how high the voltage, as it won't change the number of protons in the nucleus (the proton number is what determines what element the atom is). Gold *can* be created in a particle accelerator where atoms (such as mercury) are smashed together and fuse to form a different element.

Can you do a video on NaHS (sodium hydorsulphide)? Please...

Make a video about touch powder!

I'm not a chemist but I really love this video even I can't understands some terms.

In the very early days of photography, the process called Daguerreotype required the use of mercury vapor to develop the image. The photographer had to be in a light-tight place to do this so they set up tents when processing the photographic plates and went into these small confined spaces with a pot of heated mercury. Many of them suffered great health issues because of this practice. By the 1850's the process had changed and the mercury process was thankfully fazed out.

thank you for pointing out the danger of mercury vapor.

So if you're using a fume hood to work with mercury, where does the vapor go? Does is just vent outside and mix with the atmosphere, or is there some kind of way to trap it?

Impressive!

Please do a video about bismuth i would really like to know

So is it in a constant process of vaporization or is the energy emitted by the uv-lamp being absorbed by the Hg and that's causing it to vaporize?

Hello How to make red mercury sulfide reaction ..? Can you share your videos?

should do a video on dimethylmercury

100C seems like a pretty high temperature to me, especially for something as volatile as mercury. How much vapor would there have been at room temperature or even body temperature?

Can you make a video about Borax?

Wow! I had no idea that much vaporated

My take home message is be terrified of old high-school science buildings!

is this a UV-C light? or just a normal blacklight? i really want to recreate this experiment, but don't know what light to use.

I don't know much about Nottingham University but can people in the US apply to go there?

Prof, can you explain how mercury (denatured?) is used in Ayurvedic medicine? thank you!

how long does it take for a 1 ml sample of mercury to completely evaporate?

how long would it take for the dish of vapor to completely vaporize?

@ThomasPlaysTheGames

8 жыл бұрын

The rate is 0.056 mg per hour, per square cm of surface area, at 24 Celsius. You can do the math :)

Can ozone generators help remove ozone vapor? It would seem mercury might be oxidized by ozone and then precipitate out.

So, Ten ml. Hg in an open Petri dish at room temp will evaporate over what period of time?

How long would it take to notice the effects of mercury toxicity through vapor inhalation?

@theamici

8 жыл бұрын

Ignore Tony. You'd notice it based on how much you accumulate in your body, so the real question is how much you'd need to accumulate for to feel the effects within a year?

You should do the experiment with magnesium and phosphoric acid

Would be interesting to see how long it takes for this mercury vapor to tarnish powdered sulfur.

can you do video on 'red mercury'?

Thanks for the info, Watch out for those Florescent lamps ....you know the CFL's we are told to use..........

@thekaxmax

8 жыл бұрын

yeah, you've been told not to break them for 40 years

@carlosherradaperez444

8 жыл бұрын

Lol Sevilla

What is the symptoms you get after breathing in mercury?

Don't you just want to climb thru the computer and fill some of these people that make rude comments with mercury? People need to grow up. Thank you for that informative info I work with mercury in gold and silver mining and had no idea it fumed. I always use ppe and over the years have moved to much safer alternatives but still charge it sometimes on fines.

100 degrees centigrade is the boiling point of water - 212 degrees Fahrenheit. What would the vaporization of mercury look like at room temperature - 20 degrees C? Would you be able to see it in your video?

Apparently the reason behind the mad hatter from Alice in wonderland is that hat makers used to coat their hats with mercury to protect the fabric or something, so they ended up a bit insane.

@JimboJamble

8 жыл бұрын

Specifically, I think the name "Mad Hatter" comes from the expression "mad as a hatter," and that expression comes from the practice you described.

@vectoredthrust5214

8 жыл бұрын

They didn't coat the hats in Mercury. They soaked the fur pelts in some Mercury compound to separate the short fur from the animal hides. As one can imagine, the Mercury exposure levels were insane and caused mad hatter syndrome

Out of curiosity which wasn't mentioned in the video, Does mercury eventually evaporate away?

@theamici

8 жыл бұрын

depends on the temperature... at the right temperature, yeah it does

Thanks for warning of dangers of MERCURY.

give this man a nobel prize.

@XZenon

8 жыл бұрын

Well, he *was* dubbed "Sir" by the queen herself, wahre m wasn't he?

What happens to the mercury vapor? Since it is a heavy metal i assume that it will fall down and condense at some point.

The saying "Mad as a Hatter" derives from the hat - making factories of yesteryear using Mercury vapour somewhere in the process of hat-making, and the workers, after breathing it in, sent them doo-lally.

A little post processing could have made the fumes more visible in this video. The body does have a method, although slow, for removing mercury. Dentists test their urine to see how much mercury exposure they have received (from amalgam fillings.) Thus mercury does get removed from the body.

If the vapour is inhaled (over time), what are the effects of Mercury poisoning?

@amadeus5403

7 жыл бұрын

mental illness, mercurial personality, cancer, diabetes, tremor, endocrine system shut down and other diseases.

Will applying a electrostatic charge to mercury lower it boiling point?

can you use some sort of mask or a gas mask to prevent the vaper from going in your face?

@el_presidente

8 жыл бұрын

Never, NEVER do that. Just as Awkward Whale said you need a fume hood. I used a gas mask to handle some sulfur compounds back in highschool and my eyes bled for a week (painless, but I looked like a zombie). The scariest thing is that it was caused by a really small fume according to my doctor!

@102819921

8 жыл бұрын

3m makes a cartridge for mercury/chlorine to meet niosh standards. im not up to date on my haz waste training, but i suspect it is supposed to be used with a full face mask and bunny suit tho... we used a similar cartridge and method when cleaning up spent lead in the bullet traps at the gun range i used to work at.

@ThatOverkillGuy

8 жыл бұрын

i ask because you could use the mask, with a coat, and be safe because not all experements can be done in a hood

So how safe is it when a light bulb or shop bulb breaks? Should I evacuate the room, or what?

@superdau

8 жыл бұрын

If the lamp was off, just sweep it up (don't use a vacuum). The mercury is bound in solid form when the lamp is cold. If the lamp was on, ventilate the room for 5 to ten minutes, then sweep it up. And don't eat a tuna sandwich after that because it will have approx. give you the same mercury exposure than staying in the room with the broken lamp.

does mercury have triple point?

so if Mercury is constantly releasing a vapor, does mercury eventually dry up, or evaporate over time?

@amadeus5403

7 жыл бұрын

if its a large amount mercury we wont live long enough to see it evaporate. and if it did vaporize the vaporized mercury will eventually come back down from the air and land on something else anyway.

How much vapour is given off when the mercury is at room temperature?

What about making a video on nitrogen triiodide?

Would it be possible to cast a bell out of solid mercury? That would be very interesting.

@BlaReagy

8 жыл бұрын

Yea, if you could keep it below -40 C

Hey guys! I just finished my chemistry exam today and I didn't know what lead nitrate could be used to test for. Do you know what it could have been? We were asked what kind of ion it would be used to test for.

@captainxemo3804

8 жыл бұрын

It will be used to test for anything which reacts with a nitrate Ion. Just google it.

@TheAlexagius

8 жыл бұрын

A Halide ion

@LukeHaslerMusic

8 жыл бұрын

+TheAlexagius THATS IT! Damn it. I was so sure about that yesterday and my mind went blank in the exam. That's so frustrating.

@LukeHaslerMusic

8 жыл бұрын

+TheAlexagius In that case I got silver nitrate mixed up with lead nitrate because that is another test for halides isn't it.

@d3lyfied414

8 жыл бұрын

It is used to detect halogen ions (e.g. PbCl2 is not easily solvable).

Should I just assume that the fume hood vents through a bunch of filters and not straight to the walkway beside the chem lab ?

@kurtilein3

8 жыл бұрын

Industrial HEPA filters, designed to filter/neutralize a variety of chemicals using active charcoal, are being used. As a second layer of protection, the exhaust still goes to the rooftop into a small chimney. If you buy a quality fume hood and have it installed, that comes with it, together with the fans and the shatter-proof glass and the heat and corrosion resistant ceramics surfaces.

Ok that's scary. It's the same with a little drop of mercury at home temperature ?

@TheHuntermj

8 жыл бұрын

Much, much less

@aajjeee

8 жыл бұрын

yes

@kurtilein3

8 жыл бұрын

It depends on surface area, mercury temperature, and air temperature, but yes. Its toxic.

@KingOfChaos213

8 жыл бұрын

I'm fine after breathing it in... I think.

@BeCurieUs

8 жыл бұрын

Yes, but for little drops and single time exposures it isn't a big deal. Chronic, day after day, though, is a problem and you would want a fume hood.

is the vapour gaseous mercury? or some other form?

Does this mean that a puddle of mercury would eventually completely evaporate? How long would that take? If it is producing visible (with a lamp) vapor then I am surprised that it is not evaporating fast enough that pools of mercury under old laboratory floorboards would not completely disappear.

@kurtilein3

8 жыл бұрын

i would guesstimate maybe 10 years, more if there is not much air circulation, more if its partially covered in dust. The heat makes it go faster, and the UV light could also make it go faster because of the photoelectric effect described by Einstein. Those photons are definitely powerful enough to ionize mercury, they were created by the same process in reverse. They should hit it with a powerful pulsed UV laser and see if they can make some mercury vapor rings.

@BeCurieUs

8 жыл бұрын

Ya, vapor pressure kinda means what pressure needed to keep the thing in equilibrium. So your soda, it doesn't actually go completely flat, only flat enough so that an equal amount is coming into solution as it is out. That is a slightly different gas law, but very similar. (Boyle's Law vs I think it is Raoult's law?) Same for mercury, and as you can imagine, mercury basically doesn't exist in regular air.

@kurtilein3

8 жыл бұрын

Christopher Willis Unless you live anywhere near a coal fire power plant, in which case a whole lot of mercury exists in regular air :)

if encountering an accident of breaking a mercury thermometer, try to cover it right away with a big piece of cloth or paper nearby to prevent inhalation of mercury.

@amadeus5403

7 жыл бұрын

You'rr supposed to scatter sulfur powder over the affected area. Mercury has highest binding affinity to sulfur do this prevents vapor emissions ;)

@marcuslin5019

7 жыл бұрын

Tell me how to find sulphur powder when you're at home. Most of the people don't have that at home in this planet. Even when you're in a lab it's not sure you can find it. When you are wasting time looking for sulphur, the Hg would be gone quickly and you breath that stuff into your lung and start destroying your kidney and other organs. Just be practical.

@Bronze_Age_Sea_Person

7 жыл бұрын

Vapor pressure of Hg isn't high enough to be "gone quickly" and sulphur isn't that hard to find if you can already buy mercury.I buy sulphur in the same place they sell pet food,pest control chemicals,rat traps and fishing equipment(don't know how they call this in america,in Brazil we call it aviário,because they sell bird food and birds like parakeets and cockatiels there too)I think you can buy in stores that sell stuff for agriculture like copper sulphate(a fungicide)and herbicides.Actually,even the little market here sells sulphur powder together with salts like ammonium chloride and spices like turmeric and curry.Yeah,my neighborhood is weird.

@PrinssiFO

6 жыл бұрын

Upon encountry call emergency and evacuate to Mars.

what temperature does mercury not vaporize?

@BeCurieUs

8 жыл бұрын

If it is in liquid form, there will always be some vapor. Even in solid form some with directly sublimate. Or to say it another way, any temperature above absolute zero, some vapor pressure will be exist.

You would be horrified at what happened at school in the 1970s. The teacher joked that we were transporting mercury away from the room via our bodies. We were using it openly in the room.

Ever since watching Terminator 2, I've always suspected that liquid metal was dangerous to humans. Now I know for sure.

Mercury dental amalgams outgas mercury vapor in quantities easily observable using the method demonstrated in this video. I have been considering replacing the ones I have with non metallic resin.

Notification gang👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽

What about lead is there vapour too? Especially at room temperature and at ≈400°C?

@thekaxmax

8 жыл бұрын

only while it's liquid.

@BeCurieUs

8 жыл бұрын

I can't find a state map of lead, but if it is liquid it will have critical points that are gas. The only thing in question is does led sublimate, that I do not know.

@nicolek4076

8 жыл бұрын

Given the right temperature and pressure, I can thing of nothing that won't sublimate.

@BeCurieUs

8 жыл бұрын

Nicole K Same, just didn't know if it was realistic or not in earth temps with earth pressures or not

@nicolek4076

8 жыл бұрын

I don't know the exact answer. However, I suspect the conditions would have to be pretty unnatural.

Does the vapour have a smell?

@donkeyguy20

8 жыл бұрын

Celestial Archangel Phoenix That sounds like a fabulous idea!

@amadeus5403

7 жыл бұрын

no smell. but if you're allergic to mercury you'll have a immune response when you inhale it.

Would Mercury eventually evaporate given enough time?

Now, let's not all forget about the professor's experience with the famous Mercury Bell...

what about gold and silver vapours??? also i would like to see more extensive barking dog exspiraments in a u shapped tube. thanks professor and Neil!

Hello guys. I'm watching these videos and Im scared AF! I broke thermometer today in the kitchen and mercury breads were all over the room. I opened the windows imediatelly and I picked all the visible mercury drops. I made like 0,5 cm ball from them and put it to the glass bottle. Then I vacuum cleaned the room, and double cleaned the floor with mops. I threw away everything I used. But I am sure there are some tiny drops inside the holes of the floor, or in some hard to reach areas. But when I picked the pea-sized ball, I hope the rest of it is not so harmful, is it? I am very worried about my health and my family, after watching these youtube vids and reading some articles online. I don't know what should I do now. I called emergency, but they said, it's too small amount to harm, I just need to pick it all and it will be fine.

@dugy508

5 жыл бұрын

Have anyone ever heard of mercury poisoning due thermometer break?

@stellinad4587

Жыл бұрын

Hi Martin, just had a similar experience… how are you and your family? 🙏

Can you make a video about the highly unstable compound NITROGEN TRI IODIDE " ? and explain why it's so unstable that it explodes just by a touch or by a laser pointer? There is a video made by "the king of random" KZread channel about this, but he doesn't say about the science behind why it's so unstable.

I argue that a fume hood can make it more dangerous because lower pressure = more evaporation so one would get more mercury fumes. So I propose a heavier than air fume covered that is ventilated from below.

@0osk

8 жыл бұрын

it doesnt matter if more is created cause it's in a fume hood