| Term Paper Title |
Mercury |
| # of Words |
807 |
| # of Pages (250 words per page double spaced) |
3.23 |
Mercury
The transition metals as a whole are a rather non-reactive group. This group includes some of the most widely used and most precious elements in the world. It includes the elements gold, silver, copper, iron, aluminum, nickel and many others. These elements can be helpful to mankind in many ways. Iron, no doubt, is one of history and today’s most useful substances. Copper has been money, water pipes, jewelry, and has some useful alloys. Gold, history’s most known symbol for money and value has many uses and has been used in chemistry for a wide number of experiments. Aluminum, very well the metal of the future is used in coke cans, bicycles, and now cars. Aluminum will probably be the major metal in cars in the future as we look for a lighter metal for better energy efficiency. The world would be lost without these elements.
Mercury is one of the heaviest naturally occurring elements and is a very unique element. It is in the 7th column in the transition elements and has an atomic weight of 80. Its last energy level is 6s and fills up 7 of the 8 It was named after the planet Mercury. It has many different names. One common name is quicksilver. Another is liquid silver, which in Latin translates to hydrargyrum and is what Hg, the symbol for mercury, was derived from (web 2). It was known by the ancient Chinese and Hindus, and has been found in Egyptian tombs dating back to 1500 BC (web 1). Although it has been known about since ancient times, it was first distinguished as an element by the French chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (web 3). Mercury is the only metallic element that is a liquid at room temperature. It rarely occurs in nature and is most prevalent in the ore cinnabar (web 1). The worlds largest suppliers of cinnabar are Spain and Italy, which produce about 50% of the world's supply of cinnabar (web 1). Mercury is formed when cinnabar is heated and the vapor that was produced is condensed (web 1). It is a heavy, silvery-white metal and is a rather poor conductor of heat, as compared with other metals, and a fair conductor of electricity (web 2). Some of the properties it has is: a boiling point of 357 C °, a melting point of –39 C °, and an average atomic mass of 200.59. It can easily form alloys with many metals, such as gold, silver, and tin, which are called amalgams some of which were used...Read entire document
|
|
|
