Young Writers Society

Okay! So during my fluid mechanics class, the teacher asked us this question. Nobody was able to answer it, including me. (No, seriously, I was too busy concentrating on his jaw. He has a weird jaw!) Anyway, once I heard the answer, I thought, "D'oh!" It's like those evil lateral thinking puzzles.

Anyway, I thought I might share it with you.

Because of the inherent properties of mercury (Hg), big drops of mercury, upon landing on a solid surface, tend to flatten out completely while small drops, upon landing on a solid surface, are almost spherical. This means that, due to surface tension, it easier to clean up smaller drops than bigger drops. In fact, for the smaller drops of mercury, if you can maneuver the surface so it tilts, you can slide the mercury drops, no problem! You can't do this for the bigger drops, and that's why it is advisable to break up the mercury into little drops before you clean it up, and it is typically cleaned up this way. With that said, our professor told us that, if we broke up a big drop into tiny little drops in order to clean it up, providing that everything except the surface area stays the same, we were putting ourselves in danger.

Why?

It's poisoness? IDK. My mind thinks in circles, I fail at this stuff.

Er...because if it went 'up' it would touch your face?


I could guess at this forever...

I know it's posionous, so clearly the solution is something in relation to the liquid coming into contact with you...

Could it be to do with how one seperates the mercury?


Maybe you have to wear gloves,or protective equipment.


'Staying the same' could mean anything..

and if I wanted to look like a smartass I could say that staying the same could mean having no safety equipment.



Of course I have other ideas...but they aren't very clever.

I'm thinking that the answer will be riddle like and witty, otherwise you wouldn't have bothered posting this...

Obviously you were impressed....


Oh well..

-ponders some more-

Because you'd be putting yourself in danger no matter the size? XD

I'm thinking that the answer will be riddle like and witty, otherwise you wouldn't have bothered posting this...

Obviously you were impressed....

I was impressed by the logic behind it. That's why I posted it.

So far, all of you are wrong.

You had nothing to break it up with? Or it was in something to begin with, and if it broke, you'd all be goners

Surface area doesn't stay the same? You mean it moves? Or your surface is tilted or something weird?

Surface area, in this case, refers to the amount of area that is exposed to a surface, including the air-mercury interface.

XD

You're using a proper instrument to separate it!

It's got something to do with the surface area, since everything else is the same.

Well, if you break up the drops of mercury, you'll have all of these little drops spread out on the safe surface area. If you tilt the surface area to collect the drops, won't they all turn back into a big puddle?

Somehow, I don't think that's it, but I'll suggest it anyway. It's the only thing I could really think of.

That's what I thought, when I heard this! Great minds think alike, eh?

But that's wrong. I think you're on the right track though.

Nope!

You'd still be putting yourself in danger because, as it's toxic, a chemistry technician should clean it up, rather than the students?

The only other thing I can think of is that if you had lots of little droplets, then when you tilted it there'd be more rolling around all over the place.

You'd be exposing it to air?