Mercury: The Enchanting Element

Mary Hardister
November 30, 2010
mercury: the Enchanting Element
Mercury is the name of a major roman god, a planet, and an element. The element of mercury is a liquid metal and quite unique. 1 Its ace of few elements to be a liquid in its intrinsic state, and it has an enchanting silvery reflective appearance.2 However, this metal and most of its compounds ar highly toxic. It was given the now obsolete name, hydragyrum, a Latin word meaning liquid silver, from which it its elemental symbol Hg is derived from. 3 On the periodic table, it rest between prosperous and thall(a)ium with an atomic number of 80. Some of its properties include a hefty atomic weight of 200.59, 1 a minginess of 13.59, freezing point of -38.85*C, and boiling point of 356.6*C. Mercury is non soluble in water, is somewhat volatile, and (as a liquid) has such a high surface tension that it will not sozzled surfaces. 3
Mercury was known to early civilizations such as the Egyptians, the Chinese, the Greeks and the Romans. 4 It was treated by these cultures with a mystical fascination and respect. In many cultures such as Tibetan and Indian, Mercury was thought by the alchemist the mystic to be the primordial element. They believed that from it all other matter was formed.

Works Cited
1 Brodersen, Klaus. 2008. Mercury (element).



In AccessScience @McGraw-Hill : encyclopedia of science and technology online [database on the Internet]. 2007-10 ed. [New York]: McGraw-Hill. [cited 2010 Nov 30]. Available from: hypertext transfer protocol://www.accessscience.com/.
2 Hanlon, Michael. 2007 August 21. The Magical Properties of Mercury; the Metal the EU Wants to Ban. Dailymail [Internet]. [cited 2010 November 30]. Avaliable from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-460406/The-magical-properties-Mercury-metal-EU-wants-ban.html.
3 Krebs, Robert E. The History and Use of Our acress Chemical Elements: A Reference Guide. Westport, CT : Greenwood Press, 1998. 129-132p.
4 Metel Matters: Mercury [Internet]. Thinkquest...If you want to get a full essay, graze it on our website: Orderessay



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