Talk:Mercury (element)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mercury (element) has been listed as a good article under the good-article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can delist it, or ask for a review.

Mercury (element) is either included in the Wikipedia CD Selection or is a candidate for inclusion in the next version (the project page is at WPCD Selection). Please maintain high quality standards, and if possible stick to GFDL and GFDL-compatible images.

	This article is supported by the Elements WikiProject, which gives a central approach to the chemical elements on Wikipedia. Please participate by editing this article, or visit the project page for more details. This article has also been selected for the Version 0.5 release of Wikipedia.
GA	This article has been rated as GA-Class on the quality scale.
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the importance scale.

It is good. Midgley 00:56, 8 April 2006 (UTC) Article changed over to new Wikipedia:WikiProject Elements format by maveric149. Elementbox converted 12:32, 14 July 2005 by Femto (previous revision was that of 02:33, 14 July 2005).

Contents 1 Information Sources 2 Talk 3 Atmospheric mercury pollution 4 disputed 5 gallium liquid at room temp? 6 summaries of UNEP "Global Mercury Assessment" 7 The Diamagnetic properies of Mercury 8 Triggering mercury's expansion and compression attributes 9 Mercury history 10 methylmercury link 11 Occurrence in the environment 12 Why is Mercury liquid? 13 Question for anyone. 14 Crustal and oceanic abundance 15 Joan Miró fountain 16 Solid mercury 17 Another Question 18 "Hydrargyrum" 19 Mercury Use? 20 Mercury 21 Mercury shape in water 22 Mercury: use as Medicine in Ayurveda and Homoeopathy 23 Mercury as a polish

[edit] Information Sources

Some of the text in this entry was rewritten from Los Alamos National Laboratory - Mercury. Additional text was taken directly from USGS Magnesium Statistics and Information, from the Elements database 20001107 (via dict.org), Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (via dict.org) and WordNet (r) 1.7 (via dict.org). Data for the table were obtained from the sources listed on the subject page and Wikipedia:WikiProject Elements but were reformatted and converted into SI units.

> converted into SI units

except for the 76 lb flask....

---

Where did the graph of mercury in Wyoming's Fremont Glacier come from? Paul Studier 19:22, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

[1], see the image's description page Image:Mercury fremont ice core.png. Femto 20:23, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. I didn't see it hiding in plain sight right under my cursor. Paul Studier 22:18, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Talk

---

Question: Just exactly what are the poisonous affects of mercury, and how long does it take to begin actually harming a body, and how?

Mercury and its compounds react with the sulfur atoms in the amino acids in your body, destroying them.

---

Why is the picture sideways? Rmhermen 04:08, Nov 21, 2003 (UTC)

---

Please explain how "(along with exaggeration of the actual risk in the media)" is factual in relation to the dangers of broken mercury thermometers? ᚣᚷᚷᛞᚱᚫᛋᛁᛚ

This has already been discused in the past [2]. Mercury is no more dangerous than acids or petrol if it is handled properly.

Darrien 20:46, 2004 May 7 (UTC)

[edit] Atmospheric mercury pollution

Hi,

Quoting wiki: "Even though it is far less toxic than its compounds, elemental mercury still poses a significant environmental pollution problem due to the fact that mercury forms organic compounds inside of living organisms. Methyl mercury works its way up the food chain, reaching high concentrations among populations of some species such as tuna. Mercury poisoning in humans will result from persistent consumption of tainted foodstuffs."

One information, not included here, could help to clarify things. Gaseous elemental mercury is estimated to have an atmospheric residence time of about one year, making it subject to long-range atmospheric transport over global scales. Deposition fluxes in ecosystems vary according to regional parameters such as precipitation, land characteristics, vicinity of large emission sources and availability of gaseous oxydants.

I'll stop here.

D.D.

[edit] disputed

There are not three room temperature elements. Gallium isn't really one of them. There are at least four. Read talk:gold. lysdexia 09:46, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] gallium liquid at room temp?

I've removed Gallium from the elements liquid at room temp, I don't think 302.91K realy counts as room temperature anymore. Incidentally, Caesium melts at 301.59K, and Francium at even less. --fvw* 02:40, 2004 Nov 11 (UTC)

Yeah, but you really can't attribute bulk characteristics to francium, seeing as how little there is of it on the planet at any given time. It's almost as bad as astatine.

I agree with the above person about francium. Even if it was a liquid, its intense radioactivity would cause it to self-boil.

[edit] summaries of UNEP "Global Mercury Assessment"

GreenFacts presents a faithful summary of the "Global Mercury Assessment" of UNEP (2002) at: http://www.greenfacts.org/mercury

It does not comment or add information to the UNEP report, but simply aims to make its content more accessible and understandable for the public (structured as questions and answers in 3 levels of increasing detail).

UNEP itself acknowledged this summary and linked to it at the top of its website, see: http://www.chem.unep.ch/mercury/Report/Final%20Assessment%20report.htm

I would like to know why a link to the summary posted on GreenFacts is not considered appropriate by Wikipedia?

Stephanie Mantell, GreenFacts Publication Manager StephanieM 14:50, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I have reinstated all deleted GreenFacts links together with links to the original studies, a clear statement that GreenFacts is an industry lobbying group, and with a link to the GreenFacts article that has details on the GreenFacts strategy. Cacycle 17:30, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Please note that GreenFacts is not an "industry lobbying group" see GreenFacts discussion page. StephanieM 13:20, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] The Diamagnetic properies of Mercury

The Diamagnetic properties of Mercury are not metioned. Quite important if one is trying to research how ancient Virmana may actually have flown.

[edit] Triggering mercury's expansion and compression attributes

What is the most efficient way to trigger Mercury's expansion and compression? I don't know anything about mercury. I was wondering if would be possible to build a small train powered by the process of mercury expanding and contracting (using the expansion to move the wheels half the way around, and contraction to move them the other half back).

My understanding is that the expansion and compression of mercury in thermometers is caused by thermal expansion. The movement of mercury in barometers is caused by changes in air pressure ("barometric pressure"). (Please tell me if there is *any* other way to cause mercury to expand and contract. All the other ways of expansion and contraction that I know about -- such as piezoelectric effect -- I don't think work with liquid or gaseous mercury, but I would be surprised and delighted to find out I was wrong.) While I suppose that it would be possible to use either of these effects to power a train using mercury, I think other materials would be much more suitable.

• thermal expansion: the traditional steam trains are propelled by the thermal expansion of water; I suppose you could use Shape memory alloy as well.
• The idea of using air pressure to power small mechanical devices is recommended at Self replicating systems and low cost manufacturing: The Broadcast Architecture by Ralph C. Merkle. More details at Acoustic Energy Conversion Processes by Robert A. Freitas Jr.

Is there a general Wikipedia article on "air pressure power" ? --DavidCary 22:25, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Mercury history

Researching mercury's history turned up an enormous amount of information, and I am thinking about starting a seperate article — whenever I figure out what the title should be. Possibly on its history in medicine alone. The other topics are either fine where they are, or have articles that could have a more in-depth history. I also removed the link to "Los Alamos National Laboratory - Mercury" from the references after finding more detailed sources. I thought I had more to say, but that's it. - LeaMaimone 03:20, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] methylmercury link

Gene, — I (and presumably TenOfAllTrades too) want this article to use methylmercury, not methyl mercury. Change it back. No, it does not need to be discussed on the talk page of the renamed page, unless you have evidence that "methylmercury" is indeed not the commonly accepted name. Feel free to do so if that is the case. Until then, what could be your reason to insist on a spelling that is different from the name of the page? Femto 14:16, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

Google shows 65,400 hits for "methyl mercury". It shows about 1.8 times as many for "methylmercury".

That shows two different, well-established names.

In such cases, the general Wikipedia rule is to leave it as it is. The burden of arguing for a change lies with the proponents of a change.

In other words, my reversions do not require showing that "methylmercury" is not a generally accepted name; it is your reversions which require a showing that "methyl mercury" is not a generally accepted name. I'd settle for a change in preferred nomenclature by some standards agency if it were explained in the talk page of the renamed article—but that is clearly something we do not have at this time. Gene Nygaard 14:41, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

And something which we don't need at this time, although desirable. The general Wikipedia rule is to be bold with changes, not that a single person may block changes which are wanted by more than one simply because no references are given. Do you know that "methylmercury" is not IUPAC standard? Do you know that TenOfAllTrades's edit may not be based on such knowledge? Clearly neither spelling is inacceptable. We don't have to justify this edit to you, and you don't have a reason to block it. Femto 17:03, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

Hi, I didn't mean to cause a tempest in a teapot with the name change. While both terms are used, methylmercury is more common (see Femto's comments) and also the IUPAC standard (PDF). --TenOfAllTrades (talk/contrib) 17:41, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

I've elaborated on my reasoning at Talk:Methylmercury. --TenOfAllTrades (talk/contrib) 18:22, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Occurrence in the environment

Seemingly, the anonymous user 137.48.126.86 has some trouble accepting that the US emissions have declined by 85% since 1999 (Line 246), so could someone please cite a source for that, before we get an edit duel? -- Totti ✉ 20:44, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

It is in the link for the changed item. (SEWilco 04:01, 20 May 2005 (UTC))

• "What are the biggest sources of mercury air emissions in the U.S.?"
  • "According to EPA's 1999 National Emissions Inventory, coal-fired electric power plants are the largest source of human-caused mercury air emissions in the U.S. These power plants account for about 40% of total U.S. manmade mercury emissions. Other large sources are industrial boilers (about 10% of U.S. mercury emissions), burning hazardous waste (about 5%), and chlorine production (also about 5%). Burning municipal waste and medical waste was once a larger source of emissions. Today, in response to EPA and state regulations and reductions in mercury use, emissions from these sources have declined 85-90 percent." [3]
    • As a postdoc at the EPA working on reducing mercury emissions from coal fired power plants I can say with certainty that "these sources" in the last sentance refers to the burning of municipal waste and medical waste mentioned in the previous sentence. Taking a look at this Emissions Progress Graph should clear things up.--BCAttwood 16:52, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Why is Mercury liquid?

Copied from the Reference Desk:

Mercury is the only metal element that is liquid at room temeratures. Why?

It's melting point is -37.9 °F (= -38.83°C), and its boiling point is 674.11 °F. What is it about this element's atoms, and/or electron layers, that makes it different in this respect from other metails?

The answer has partly to do with the electron configuration of Mercury, and also relativistic effects. The electron configuration of mercury is [Kr] 4d¹⁰ 4f¹⁴ 5s² 5p⁶ 5d¹⁰ 6s². The last shell labeled 6s is completely full, and is noticibly closer to the nucleus than what would be expected if relativistic effects were not taken into account. The combination of these two factors results in rather tightly bound outer shell of electrons for mercury. Hence, mercury cannot form particularly strong metal-metal bonds. The result is an element which is liquid at room temperature. Contrast this with gold and thallium which are right beside mercury on the periodic table, but are solids. Let the reference desk know if you'd like a more detailed explanation, I hope this answers your question! --HappyCamper 1 July 2005 00:03 (UTC)

Thanks HappyCamper for explaining more clearly than I usually manage! "Relativistic effects" occur in atoms of a high atomic number: the positive charge of the nucleus is so high that some of the electrons in the atoms are moving very fast—fast enough that special relativity has to be taken into account in predicting their movement. This causes a number of changes in the chemistry of the elements concerned, of which the fact that mercury is liquid at room temperature is perhaps the most striking. Physchim62 4 July 2005 08:46 (UTC)

You're welcome, Physchim62 :-) You do great edits on Wikipedia too! --HappyCamper 7 July 2005 04:25 (UTC)

One small quibble, if I may: "electrons moving fast". Well, yes the electrons whether acting particle-like or wave-like do have velocity and momentum data associated with them. But while in an orbital (a standing wave) "moving fast" is a poor way to describe a charge that is not doing what charged particles do when they move fast (in a circle - i.e. accelerating). Visualizing a charged particle zipping about the nucleus like a planet around a sun at a relativistic speed is terribly misleading. (Even if expert chemists who don't care about the physics of charged particle movement DO use that heuristic.) 4.250.168.127 23:04, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Question for anyone.

What is Mercury's natural state?

What do you mean by 'natural state'? As far as the state of occurence, it mostly is found combined with another element such as sulfur or oxygen.

[edit] Crustal and oceanic abundance

Re: the recent addition - Extra entry rows can be added to the Elementboxes simply as ordinary Wikitable code (like the critical temperature at hydrogen). Though I think the data is fine where it is right now; a new template would only be necessary if one includes similar data for at least a few other elements. Large-scale additions should be proposed first at Wikipedia:WikiProject Elements. If we can provide an authoritative reference, the terrestrial abundances may well be worth it. What is the source of this particular data? Especially with estimates like this it's important to cite sources. Femto 11:51, 5 November 2005 (UTC)

• Origin of data. I googled for mercury abundance, to come up with some average, though some sources may not have proper copyright to get officially cited here, other than under fair use provisions. I almost messed up there. I feel a bit paranoid, especially after reading a slashdot story or some story somewhere about a project trying to find out how data gets here, feels like even google is in on this study to figure out how human body of knowledge trickles into wikipedia.) Here are some hard numbers I came across, with super-proper copyright (once you know the numbers, it's not that hard to find correct copyright sources to back it up, and use fair use provisions to slowly drip back small bits of info into wikipedia. These below are gov't publications, in public domain, and if paid professionals are allowed to excersize fair use on what they cite, why shouldn't we recite what made the transition into public domain by their hand?
  • Crustal: http://ca.water.usgs.gov/sac_nawqa/AGHg.pdf, page 6, Mercury in sediment, "Mercury concentrations above the worldwide average crustal abundance (0.067 mg/g; Cox, 1989) were measured ..."
  • Crustal and oceanic: http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2005/1030/pdf/OFR2005_1030_508.pdf, page 13, Mercury General Geochemistry, " Crustal abundance of 0.08 ppm, Soil (0.06 ppm), Limestone (0.04 ppm), Shale (0.02-0.4 ppm), Water (0.07 ppb but this is an old estimate from the late 1970 s and may overestimate the real water abundance)"

Scanning through other publications, such as http://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/b2156/b2156.pdf, or mercury in water chemical testing procedure publications, you can get a feel at just how variable the concentration estimates are, and one significant digit is probably all that we want here. Note: It would be nice to create a template for each element, and even I'd probably pitch in to hunt down numbers. Now from that first citation, Cox, P.A., 1989. The Elements: Their Origin, Abundance, and Distribution. Oxford University Press, Oxford, sounds like has a nice book on this topic, but it probably cannot be reproduced in its entirety here, in the sense that we take all data for all elements, without copyright holder permission. What can be done, just as the USGS articles do, is citing small bits of info, from many different sources, each under fair use provisions. You'd have to completely eliminate all fair use provisions from copyright law to stop info from filtering into wikipedia, or into public domain, and you'd have to request permission to utter or express every single word you ever utter or express, without fair use. Forget freedom of speech, since nothing you know comes from within, as David Hume would tell Descartes, everything comes from without, sensory experience. So, say, you pay for a college education to learn the data that someone else came up with, becoming part of your knowledge, your expertise, are you forever forbidden to disclose it in your general dealings and discussions, and have to run request a permission slip to utter such things as, let's say, Newton's laws, or if that's out of copyright into public domain, then, say, the latest news on superconductivity? It's gonna be very hard to stop wikipedia from growing, it would be a lot easier to assault it with a massive 'denial of service' type attack messing up each article to the point where the enthusiasts give up trying to keep up the repair work. Sillybilly 13:04, 5 November 2005 (UTC)

Copyright does not apply to facts and factual data. Properly attributed (and not copying anything of creative worth like layout, colors, typographic style etc.) there shouldn't be a problem even with quoting a full table of data from a book on the elements; fair use, fair and square. There may be localized database protection laws on recent data created under 'sweat of brow' (created, as opposed to simply compiled from other sources). Wikipedia as a non-profit educational organization also may likely be exempt from that.

Nine tenths of the copyright law is intimidation (though they're lobbying to change that to full). If you're still paranoid (don't blame ya on that) it would be beneficial not just to quote from one source but to compare from several, like I did at melting points of the elements (data page) for example; if anybody sues, who copied from who? If I find time, I could contribute the Abundance of Elements data from the CRC Handbook to a data page like that.

Should anybody feel some Intellectual Property be infringed by being cited as the source of factual data, I know that the Wikimedia Foundation would see it as a case worth fighting, with good publicity for us and bad publicity for the other side. Femto 15:42, 5 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Joan Miró fountain

According to [4] the mercury fountain that is located at the Fundació Joan Miró was designed by Alexander Calder. Could an art-savvy person clear this up? Femto 15:03, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

Done. Thanks for pointing it out. --BorgQueen 15:10, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Solid mercury

Is mercury still poisonous as a solid? Evan Robidoux 15:08, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

That depends on what you mean by solid and poisonous. The toxicity of frozen, solid mercury will be no different than the liquid upon ingestion or skin exposure because it will melt pretty quickly (or freeze the exposed area if there is a large amount). The vapor pressure of mercury should be quite a bit lower at temperatures below its melting temperature, so the risk of exposure to mercury vapor from a frozen chunk is less.

If by solid, you mean mercury compounds or amalgams, then the answer is it depends. The toxicity of mercury compound varies widely, although on average I would say they are more toxic. The safety of dental amalgams is debated, although it could probably be said that they are safer than just having the equivalent amount of pure mercury rolling around in one's mouth.BCAttwood 19:34, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

"Is (substance) Poisonous?"

Everything is actually Toxic, it all depends on the AMOUNT of substance. Even Water can kill if you drink 7 gallons at once. Mercury metal - you MIGHT get away with holding some in your hand (BUT I DON'T RECCOMEND THAT), BUT Dimethylmercury will kill you if you get even one drop on your skin - see Karen Wetterhahn ....Joeylawn

Elemental mercury is actually quite safe, as it is not very reactive at all. Because of this, mecury metal is only slightly toxic, while vapor is much more harmful. Historically, liquid mercury has been used to treat ileus, since it is a quite heavy liquid that forces its way through the digestive system, opening passage. This is not practiced anymore.

[edit] Another Question

Can mercury exist as a gas? Evan Robidoux 04:48, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Sure, heat it and/or lower the pressure in a closed container and you can get a true saturated vapor (as opposed to evaporation in air). Femto 17:09, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "Hydrargyrum"

Let's make it clear for once and all:

The expression "hydrargyrum" consists of the following two Greek words:

• "hydor" ("hudôr") for "water" or "liquid" (noun, not adjective)
• "argyros" ("arguros") for "silver" or "of silver"

The correct combination of these words is "hydrargyros" and not "hydrargyron" (which suggests the neuter form) as previously stated. The ending "-um" instead of "-os" emerges from its adaptation into Latin. However, this does not make the word Latin, barely Latinized. The literal translation into Latin would be "aquargentum", which is not used. The correct Latin name is "mercurium" (origin of this is stated in the article).

Also note that classical Latin never uses the letter "y". Words that are often refered to as being Latin and yet contain this letter are either Latinized versions of non-Latin words or not Latin.

So please, leave the statements in the introduction and in the "History" section alone and revert to current state whenever changed, as both of them are to be regarded as correct until proven (explained reasonably) otherwise in here. -- Totti (talk) 03:00, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mercury Use?

I am looking for information on the use of Mercury for testing Propane. I received a ceramic jug full of Mercury from an elderly person at a Household Hazardous waste disposal site I run, who claimed that his job was to test tankers before acccepting a load of propane at his job in the early 1960's.

Has anyone heard of this?

Got2cjb 18:32, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

pressure test of some sort? Propane is pretty unreactive.Geni 20:41, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

He claimed that a drop of Mercury was added to a sample of propane and that it had to freeze before it hit the bottom of the vial.

[edit] Mercury

How much Mercury does it take to kill you?

According to the EPA the injestion of 1 to 4 grams of elemental mercury can kill an average size adult. Organic compounds of mercury have varying levels of toxicity; dimethylmercury can kill with just a few drops on the skin (see Karen Wetterhahn). BCAttwood 20:39, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mercury shape in water

On the right in the article I see that mercury has a very distinctive shape in air. But in a discussion we had on IRC we were wondering how this shape would be in water. Would it be more spherical, less, or perhaps something totally different? - Dammit 19:59, 26 June 2006

The spherical shape is due to Surface Tension. Imagine forces in the liquid metal pulling the particles inwards . There are also forces pulling the particiles out. This is visible in any liquid, but especially in water where it has a boundary with air. The concave meniscus of water in air in a test tube (that's the bit where the water seems to go upwards and cling to the sides of the test tube) is due to this, I was taught. At the edge of the surface, the water doesn't have enough force to keep it down and facing inwards so the outwards forces win out and this gives rise to the concavity. Mercury in air is really very different, you'll know this if you have seen mercury droplets against a surface. Water droplets tend to cling to the surface, Mercury droplets tend to cling to themselves, which makes for the convex shape. This effect is probably strongly related to the density of the liquid and the density of the surrounding medium, so because water is far more dense than air (but only about 10 times as dense as mercury at room temperature) I would expect the mercury droplet in water to be spherical in nature, but perhaps not quite as spherical as it would be in air. Rosejpalmer 04:22, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mercury: use as Medicine in Ayurveda and Homoeopathy

The use of Mercury as medicine is very old in Ayurveda, the Indian system of medicine and also in Homoeopathy. This article does not contain information about this fact.

User:Dbbajpai1945@sify.com 9:45 PM IST 20 August 2006

You probably wouldn't want to use mercury in medicine of any kind unless you were sure that once it entered the body it would do no harm before the patient died anyway. Humans have no way of dealing with ingested mercury. It just goes in there and messes things up and, for the most part, stays there. But I suppose we should document poor medicine, too. European medicine used mercury as a treatment for syphilis, so it isn't just Indian medicine that (perhaps in desperate circumstances) resorted to mercury as a "magic bullet". rosejpalmer.

[edit] Mercury as a polish

My sixth grade science teacher, a very old gentleman, mentioned as a kid that his science teacher allowed them to dip/coat their dimes into/with mercury and they would come out, like new; no scratches shiny, etc. Any truth to this? If true how does it affect the dimes alloys-- does it make them stronger or weaker and are they poisenous??