HOURGLASS Filled with MERCURY - What HAPPENS?
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- čas přidán 12. 12. 2012
- What happens when you replace the sand in an hourglass with the liquid metal, mercury? You can see that fluids do not work very well in hourglasses because it doesn't "breathe" properly. Despite being almost 14 times denser than water, it still behaves like a liquid, bubbling and dribbling along.
Frequently asked questions:
-------How long did it take for the mercury to fall through the hourglass?---------
A: It took about 10 minutes. However, the mercury would start and stop and a few times it stopped for a minute or so and required me to nudge it to get it going again.
How did you seal up the hole?
A: I just used an epoxy putty.
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For more interesting mercury videos, please check out my "Mercury Playlist".
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10-17 - Věda a technologie
Now try to put the sands in a thermometer..
faggio60 Epic pwnage here, my friend. Friggin' epic.
Ultimist
+No Label Old thermometers were usually filled with mercury
faggio60 hahahahahahahhaa
faggio60 lol you made my day
it really wasn't beautiful at all, and as cool as mercury is this probably wasnt the most beautiful thing you could have done with it
+Matt Canovas Have you seen a MORE beautiful one?
yes ive seen one that dosent look like a leaky mercury faucet I know you worked hard and you were conducting an experiment but it dosent look beautiful
***** i saw a video where is was tested if a cannonball could float in mercury was beautiful
I've floated large ball bearing before. I don't have a cannon ball.
+Matt Canovas just because you think you have seen a "more beautiful one" does not make this one "not beautiful at all". beauty is an opinion. the person who made this says that it is beautiful, and i second that. the many opinions opposite to yours, cancel your judgment out completely.
I wish you had an elapse time running to see how long it was since it was an hourglass afterall
That’s what i thought they were going to do
Exactly. How close will the time be each flip. Seconds? Minutes?
That was my thoughts 2
read the description
To be honest, watching the mercury drip at times and sometimes flow unevenly is kind of dissatisfying as compared to the sand which flows down at a constant rate.
it's a liquid,, needs to be vented
It flows like urine in a man with prostate problems.
Aftab A maybe magnets or else a bit of a spin would be what you are looking for
Aftab A w
Everything is dangerous and restricted in the UK... Nanny state.
Pretty slow for quick silver.
That's a joke...
Haha good one
Lol
***** Oh the *irony* of it all!!!
I'm These puns Are GOLD!
congratulations! you made a very deadly hour glass :D now all you have to do is next time someone breaks into your house, throw that mercury hour glass at him
+556FATHOMS you could actually go to jail for that in US lmao how twisted our laws are... The criminal could sue you for somthing malicious as that, look it up
+C3PO's Bottom Bit :| what the fuck? Self defense is against the law?
556FATHOMS cruel and unusual punishment, look up the case of the criminal who broke into someones home and got caught in a booby trap, criminal sued and won lol
C3PO's Bottom Bit dude, that is soooo fucking stupid!
556FATHOMS I dont make the laws, I just follow them lmao
I can remember playing with mercury in science class, pushing it around with our fingers. And now it's extremely hazardous.
Yeah, they figured out if you have ANY little cuts and it can penetrate your skin - you will get cancer...so yeah, can be dangerous. For the most part, ur correct...but again if it gets past your skin...you b in trouble. When you played with it, they didn't know any better. That is all. With how litigious (thank the lawyers for once again taking away our fun as they always do) the states have become there is no one in their right mind that would take that risk anymore. That is all.
I remember doing that also.
It's only dangerous if you're stupid and you try to drink it, you pour it in any Orphus of your body or you have cuts. But other than that, it's not bad.
It deserves respect & a little common sense. If you're wearing a pair of latex gloves, you have nothing to worry about!
Its not a big deal.
Yeah my friends freaked out when I told them about the mercury switch in the thermostat at my old apt.
That’s so cool!!!! Mercury is awesome!
This was like watching grass grow.
+erniebane69 Glad you enjoyed it!
I also enjoy snakebites and random bouts of gonorrhea.
Right on! We all need a hobby.
I also collect used tampons and postage stamps that have been licked by tuberculosis patients. We should hang out!
+erniebane69 Now you are just getting ridiculous. lol
It's having a mercurygasm, lol.
Kragatar A merc-squirt
+Kragatar Is this just fantasy ?
+MrGrumf No, escape from reality ;-) or perhaps I should have acknowledged Kragatar's comment and said "easy come, easy go"?
Oh God no
+Aliyah Eng Are you objecting, or explaining the main difference between a mercurygasm and a normal one? ;-)
soooo, basically nothing happens
Canchola 33 yea, I wasted 5.22 minutes of my day expecting something more to HAPPEN the way the title made it sound. Say the hour glass shattered due to weight or pressure or something.
TOTALLY NOT WORTH IT: A DROP OF MERCURY CAN KILL!
@@doctormanganate5814 aye
there must be a pretty substantial vacuum forming in the top as the mercury level drops for it to suck air from the bottom so well, it would be really cool to have a small pressure gauge at one end to watch the needle bounce back and fourth.
I guess you could call this.. a dethklok -OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHH
that joke was cancer
Cadetri Gaming Yeah, it's pretty tragic, it's been in remission for the past 2 months though.
+Cadetri Gaming lool😂 laughed so bad
Dethklok ftw.
that was the stupidest joke ever....just saying
After reading through the comments, one question becomes clear...
How do so many people know what it looks like when an old man takes a pee?
Ultimist, more than 10% of people worldwide are old
Arturo Torres Sánchez More than 10% of people worldwide know an old person!
Ultimist Remind me - what age does old start??
Ultimist and why would they ADMIT they know what it looks like?!!
"A man's only as old as the woman he feels."
Groucho Marx
It's all fun and games, until you accidentally smash it on the floor..
Hey bro what's in your profile pic??
#justcuriousity
Looks like GrumpyTommy the Tank Ogre...
Or smash it with its own weight. I bet turning it over too quickly could break it.
Like Mercury through an hour glass, these are the days of our lives.
And then you drop it and everybody dies , awesome vid tough .
So... what would they die from and how many would die? Give me your medical opinion, as invalid as it may be.
Valueless Dollar If you did a little research you would know that mercury fumes or contact with the skin are extremely dangerous. Do your research before you throw shit at other people. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning
Mr.Plow The point is... that everybody would not die... just him.
Valueless Dollar If he would be the only person in the room when he would drop it then everybody would die because he is everybody in the room so stop trying to split the hair and just admit that you were wrong.
Mr.Plow Why, would he have an irresistible urge to drink it just because he dropped it? It's mercury, not sarin.
3:39 Can see your reflection, smoking is bad D:!!
its like an old man trying to pee(:
Maybe he's into that kinda stuff?
Don't judge him.
piss in my mouth grandpa
From 16th century until early 20th century doctors would use mercury to try and treat all kind of VD in men by putting a syringe up the urethra of the penis and injecting a load of mercury so that men would pee out the infection. It never cured VD but it did lead to all sorts of problems from a very heavy bladder for a while to poisoning.
Yeah i was about to comment its like an old man trying to pee, The end result of this build is not good but that's not the point, Well done for making about $5,000 of ad revenue from this one video. 1,000 Views equals approximately $1.
+Survival + Stuff really? that's loads. I heard that a view is about 0.07 cents, so 1000 would be a total of 7 cents
If the entire bottom of that hourglass was filled it would've looked like a Metal Slime from the Dragon Quest series.
And by itself, puddled, it looks like a mettable from dragon warrior monsters!
My god, he's figured out a way to trap the T-1000!!!!
Are you Sarah Conner?
Don't trust Matt, he's a Terminator
Shhh.
shhh we arent suppose to talk about that
LOL! Awesome!
i wonder how long it took the mercury compared to sand
That is a good question
rome cottrell From the video description:
"--------How long did it take for the mercury to fall through the hourglass?----------
A: It took about 10 minutes. However, the mercury would start and stop and a few times it stopped for a minute or so and required me to nudge it to get it going again."
He said it took around ten minutes.
rome cottrell the sand let's the air trhough much easier. Not really comparable
+Postermaestro true
That is really beautiful.
THANK YOU Sooo Much for this video. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Metals and they way they interact in different ways. The end was the best, as it slowly filled up and became a chrome sphere :)
Mercury "water clocks" were the most accurate timers available until clockwork became widely available. Most people didn't need to be that accurate, but they were somewhat common among doctors (for taking a patient's pulse).
If you removed the air would that help with the flow problems?
Nick Hare that is a great question! i wonder that now too. i might just have to make this and see.
Nick Hare actually others have tried that b4fore youtube was around. imagine 10 gallons of quick silver in a an hr glass set-up. it failed when they put a vacuum to it.
***** That would create a vacuum and you'd need a much much sturdier hourglass.
Nick Hare a better way is to make it a 1-way hourglass. Add an air valve which would naturally transfer the air from the top of the bottom part of the hourglass into the top of the top side. the air valve or the mercury valve would determine the speed of the flow of mercury and then all you'd need to make the hourglass last an hour is add enough mercury... but then there's an issue because since Mercury is so dense and we know that different parts of the planet has different levels of gravity then it would not be as easy to make it as reliable as sand... but still at least it would be functional and shiny/pretty at the same time!
it could be done but there be whole lotta math an such involved.
This video is actually calming
now you got me thinking about going and building myself a mercury fountain...
Mix it with Uranium, lesss gooo
That wasn't all that beautiful, in fact it was pretty boring...
+Spencer Rugg You've seen a more beautiful and more exciting mercury hourglass before?
thousands
+Spencer Rugg I should have called it ugly in the title so everyone could tell me how wrong I was and say it is the most beautiful object they've ever seen.
they would still say its ugly, because it was
+Spencer Rugg harsh, you good sir are a phallus.
Cool concept, too bad the end product looks like an old man peeing
lmao
fk funny
i thought it would have a sleek silver continuous thread, but yeah, more like an old dude with fucked up prostate.
+disgruntled pedant Hmmm. I guess that means I need to go to the doctor.
+R Zee i think if he used a vacuum to suck out the air, it would make it run better :)
great video!
very soothing for some odd reason!
The reason is.. Your thick.
Think the reason it start and stop so many time is that the mercury would from a prefect seal (unlike the sand) so air would need to move to the top to equalize pressure.
Hourglass! You are charged with 31 oz. of mercury. How do you plead?
wow, really, that was corny
Drake Kennedy Objection! his comment had nothing to do with corn!
Giggedy!!
Question for you, what is the average time for the drip? Also try timing it at high and low temperatures for comparison.
There's a reason nobody's made a mercury hourglass before and the result highlights it perfectly.
That's how they used to make vacuum pumps back during the enlightenment. I saw Cody from Cody'sLab do it once.
Great idea. Thanks for sharing.
Great idea, an Hg hg!
Not practical but certainly decorative.
Allan Richardson
Hahaha, nice! I wish I had thought of that term first! :-)
This was dope....I'm sure Magneto would love 1 of those
I'd love for this experiment to be revisited and see if it works the same or different with an hour glass that was designed to be used with water or water/oil.
That was pretty awesome brother very very cool
I don't understand what is the point of this videos but I love them...
Riccardo Bardzki haha
Riccardo Bardzki this videos. dont you mean the video.
"these" videos. I meant all the the mercury ones... sorry for the grammar "dont"
cuase he can. long as he does it in a safe manner.
So nobody made this before... That's probably because mercury is a metal and temperatures affect too much its volume/density... This makes the glasshour useless because it will have no precission at all. Nice job genious xD
S0lidF0x Anyone else find great irony that he misspelled "genius"?
Heheh, +S0lidF0x, I like these videos, but it is too bad that their poster is sometimes rude to his viewers, huh?
Oh, but your sarcastic "genious" ("genius") comment was a bit rude too....
I'm never rude to friendly viewers, and I am capable of replying to trolls without sinking to their level. Rude? I don't think so.
***** its easy when your answer is pointless xD
*****, I've seen you respond to trolls at their level several times. And I understand the temptation to be equally rude to someone who has been rude to you, in defense, just like I do when I'm not the video's poster. But I would think that as the video's poster, rather than just a layperson like one of us other commenters, you might want to try to be *less* rude than someone has been to you (such as not being as rude to this guy just for the bit of rudeness he gave to you -- you know, not playing the eye-for-an-eye game like us general commenters might, the same as I would try on my own videos), because perhaps trying to equal them will give people a generally bad impression of your channel, and some might try making you more rude comments just for that reason alone. It's my understanding that the video's poster would play on a higher level than just general commenters. Just an idea there.
I had a Mercury Sable and it too was pretty slow.
Did it unevenly dribble off to one side?
This is CZcams comments gold!
Very cool watching the pressure equalize!
Awesome! And honestly it doesn't have to be consistent since a) it's basically art and b) who measures times with hourglasses anymore. Great project, loved it.
+ThaSoulz thank you!
+TAOFLEDERMAUS I was thinking that you could make an hourglass with some way to allow airflow out to remove pressure from the lower chamber, allowing for a consistent stream downwards.
I guess the only concerning detail would be particles of mercury being airborne.
well? How long did it take for all the mercury to fall into the lower glass?
+TonyTube407 --------How long did it take for the mercury to fall through the hourglass?----------
A: It took about 10 minutes. However, the mercury would start and stop and a few times it stopped for a minute or so and required me to nudge it to get it going again.
+Den Hayes I was going to that same question and if the time was repeatable.
But all that is out the window if you have to give a tap to start it when it hangs up.
How about showing us one that will remain constant like a water clock made from Hg
or would it?
+Sean Not-telling The problem with it is that hourglass was designed for sand and not Mercury ,so waist is too small to work with Mercury.
Someone could redesign the size of the waist.
Or Maybe you could just mount the hourglass At like a 45 degree angle like when you're pouring Pepsi out of a bottle. That should solve the problem.
+Den Hayes
Nice job, but since the bubbling up of air is not consistent, the time for the mercury to flow down would be inconsistent...
With sand there is no trouble like this, since the air can travel up in between the sand crystals.
Nice build, but useless for practical purposes...
+Zoltán Fülöp well that answered my question, thank you
WOW, That was exciting!!!
Pretty cool
Jeff, that is wicked cool!!
thanks!
They hour glass seems to work exactly as my grandfather pisses. :P
Rundvelt Your grandfather told me it disturbs him that you know that.
***** My brain tells me to type something when I see anything funny.
LOL!
***** If you ever get enough funding and want to try this one again, make an hourglass that has a vacuum inside. Then, I bet the mercury would be a steady drip instead of a trickle. It would be an interesting experiment.
Beat me to it! He might have prostate cancer, just a heads up.
If there was a vacuum in the hour glass it would work perfectly....
Except within Earth's relitvly high atmosphere pressure making it implode
I was coming to make that suggestion.
@@daylenhigman8680 not necessarily. A well built glass could handle the inward pressure. Most likely not this one though.
What if you had a vacuum pulled on the hour glass while in a negative gravity situation, would the mercury flow in the opposite direction?
You wouldn't be able to pull a good vacuum because the mercury would vaporize creating a small amount of mercury gas which would interfere with a smooth flow.
Turns out it’s still just an hourglass LOL. I was waiting for something epic. But still good job making something unique like that. I would love in at the same time be deathly scared of having that thing in my house!
Question, why don't you use galium? I think it is not really toxic to touch, and it could totally work during summer, and inside a heated house.
+Dany N B Gallium's properties, density, melting point, viscosity, etc are very different from mercury's.
Yes, as far as I know Gallium's meting point is around 29°C, and it's density is kind of a half of mercury's. But I still sould like to know if gallium could work, say, in a place in which the usual temperatur is above 29°C. Thanks!
Gallium is pretty dirty, it would stick to the glass and it would just be a big mess more than anything. Also, I don't have very much gallium, just a couple grams of it at this time.
Okay. Thank you very much!!!
+Dany N B
I think Galinstan could be viable. It's an alloy of Gallium, Lithium and tin which is used in modern "mercury" style thermometers. It's not particularly toxic (drinking not recommended), and it's liquid at room temperature.
I can't make up my mind whether this is awesome or stupid.
+Cryogenian Why can't it be both?
I vote awesome
+Cryogenian Stupid, really stupid
+Cryogenian So-so
stupid. toxic heavy metal in a delicate container inside your house... nuff said.
Loved playing with mercury. I always had a little plastic box with some in. People go daft when I tell them, but no harm was done. We used to get it from thermometers or the school Lab and roll it around on a tray. Happy Days - and I’m still alive!
I love that under the video you can buy Murcury hour glasses. "To my knowledge no one has made one before".
It is a beautiful alternative to sand or water, but I feel like starting with an hourglass that was designed for liquid might have resulted in a better flow in the end product (maybe) - with the narrow gauge of the neck, the mercury seems to be fighting with air transfer to flow. Also, I'm curious what the time-measure of the finished product was?
''We don´t want to you do this at home, but we are going to say all the steps what you can follow''
i love you an your videos anyway :*
+wilker rada no one ever "reads more".
:P
+TAOFLEDERMAUS
Those of us who can tolerate more than 30 words at a time do.
I'm very happy to see you useing a respirator, I was a bit worried.
I'd buy one just for lookin even if it didn't keep time.
Files used as prybars? Reminds me of the shop I work at! 😂 Where I work everything is a hammer, unless it's a screwdriver...then it's a chisel!😂😂😂
I would never expect for someone to own a diamond file... Really cool video though!
You can buy diamond files in most hardware or hobby shops. They'e not uncommon or expensive.
That really surprises me. A diamond file could be a non-expensive tool, but a useless just-for-looks diamond costs hundreds of dollars.
Kenkojuko MC Industrial made diamonds often lack the shine of normal diamonds, with that being said the amount of "diamond" in that file is still VERY little.
Like Mercury though the hourglass,
So are days of our lives
Beautiful video. Ending was amazing
Well thanks a lot, for cheating us all out of an hour of edge of our seat filing suspense and intrigue :-)
its like my grandpa trying to pee...
you're right!
3:30
looks like a elderly terminator with an enlarged prostate.
got 27 pounds of it. started collecting back in the 80's when it was still listed as a precious metal. that looks like a neat idea to use it
Quicksilver is awesome. Cheers!
so how long did it actually take to complete?
Video is great. A big thumbs up. But it would have been better if you told us the time it took when upper half was fully emptied...
+Mehool Patel Every time I ran it, I got different times. I think I mentioned it in the description.
Alright
Amazing! Simply amazing!
Very cool, keep up the good work,
How did you seal the glass??
Armando Mota epoxy
That's it? I thought you needed something hardcore because of the mercury
I just needed something the contain it while I filmed it because I needed to drain it right afterwards.
Oohhh I thought you were leaving it in the hour glass, thanks for a cool vid my friend
***** I emptied it once I was done filming it.
You should draw a vacuum, then the drops would have fallen one by one. So the air disturbs tremendously.
+kalyptus666 Vacuum would probably make the glass implode and break. Plexiglass could still be an option, I think.
OK thanks
Using an othe liquid would make it flow nicer instead of air imo
Like corn syrup maybe
+kalyptus666 I think the way the mercury struggles as it tries to descend the hourglass is mesmerizing....
I liked this. It was well done. For me the best part was trying to guess ahead of time if it would flow from top to bottom. I got it wrong. I've got to wonder what would happen if there was an equalizing tube between top and bottom.
Gem James or a vacuum in the bottle.
I think it might have worked better if a vacuum were drawn, then the gas would not need to bubble through the mercury it would simply vaporize in the top section and flow smoothly, the ideal shape would be a very wide cylinder necked down to a very small cylinder with the restriction in the center this would keep the column (and therefore pressure) essentially constant for most of its operation.
wow incredible. how much patience you've spent to make this houglass!
lol
Chipsy 1 hour.
+Chipsy And then it sucked.
It appears you need a tube from the top bubble to the bottom to equalize the pressure as so the mercury does not need to stop, bubble and then drop more into the bottom
***** vacuum?
I thought of this as well, it would need to be like a tea cup handle that goes above the rim, two glass tubes placed symetrically on both sides to allow air from the bottom to go to the top, without allowing the Mercury to backflow or get trapped in a pocket. Hence that teacup with a handle that goes above the rim type design. It would look pretty complicated so it's hard to explain. Just remember you only want to let Mercury flow through the center opening and you will get the gist of the reason behind it.
'
very beautifully liquid mercury in the glasshour...
good homemade...
thumb up
If you're willing to update or post an add on to this video... You can make it work without the pauses caused by the air bubbles at the neck by looking for an hour glass that has the most sand for the least amount of time.
I did the same thing back in the late 90's but I used an 18 inch hour glass that bottomed out in 10 ten minutes. The amount of sand was greater but to make it bottom out faster it's made with a bigger bottleneck.
The big bottleneck keeps it going because there is more area for the mercury to air exchange.
Another thing I did that helped me with the amount of mercury was that I used a rubber toothpick (glued to the end of a thin stick because the neck was too deep). You may have already guessed... This is used to stop the flow when it got to ten minutes.
I started the timer and started filling the hour glass at the same time and when the timer went off I plugged up the neck with the toothpick as a rubber stopper and removed the extra mercury from the top half without having to worry about making a mess or settling for anything less than exact measurements. I wanted to make it perfect so I closed up the glass with a hot glue gun the first two times because I wanted to double and triple check the timing.
Another way to do it that I think only an experienced glass blower can do for you is to make an hour glass with funneling straw on either end so the air goes up through one while the mercury goes down the other. but like I said it WILL take an experienced glass blower, Picture a ying-yang sign with the points going inside the round ends as funnels (one up and one down)
UNICORN BLOOD!
Pure a wizard Harry! And you're a hairy wizard....
DRINK IIIIT
Steve L sure that information wasn’t confidential
*Voldemort wants to know your location
It would be interesting to see what would happen if you pulled a vacuum before sealing. There would be no bubbles of air to move from the bottom to the top. I'm sure it would be a lot quicker, but how fast? Curious.
+Ken Jones Would it be quicker? Although it sputters, it rebounds with a stream of it. I would think without the bubbles you would just get dripping, making it slower. I would be very curious to find out what actually would happen.
+Stephen Juliano vacuum would pull it down faster than with air, it'd go so fast, it wouldn't drip, cause there would be no need for air to go up
I think the hourglass would implode.
Round shapes are very strong. See for reference: Vacuum tube, egg, arch, most equipment related to deep sea diving.
+Emin Kiwi That may be true, only once, if the vacuum could been introduced only in the bottom chamber while the mercury is held (I don't know how.) in the top. Once pressure equilibrium is established between the two chambers, the lack of air would offer no resistance, probably resulting in a steady stream, (depending on the size of the hole versus mercury's surface tension) but the vacuum itself would not be pulling on the mercury in any direction.
For the especially nerdy: Technically a vacuum does not pull; rather gasses/fluids at higher relative pressure (be it by density or molecular excitement, via heat) push against the outside of a low pressure space. A vacuum cleaner works because the outside air pushes towards the low pressure inside the machine and takes debris along for the ride.
Somethings are just so cool, you have to make them yourself.
It was definitely worth the wait thank you for sharing us was beautiful hourglass machine that I have ever seen
Reminds me of an old man trying to pee.
Dan Sanger Definitely time to book a prostate appointment with ol' magic finger
2:33. Lucky bastard.
It would have been messy to clean up, but as with all of his other videos, he only deals with the mercury that large tub :P
That thing is awesome!!
A way to prevent 'gurgling' is to incorporate an equalization tube between the two volumes. You can put a stopcock in the throat too to change the timing though that would spoil the nice hourglass figure.
Why does this have so many dislikes?! The fuck. Dumb fucking beauty gurus who make childish videos get praised but this gets a ton of dislikes
+Lasanja it says "pro tip: disliking the video helps boost it more than not rating at all"
Phandom
+Lasanja because he put "thanks for not dislikeing" ... humans you tell them not to push a button and you can assume that it will be pushed
+Peythe It's self-contradictory. In one place he says thumbs down helps more than not voting at all, but in another place he asks for people to not give him a thumbs down, which implies thumbs down is worse than not voting.
+Lasanja because it did not prove anything except that one realizes that sand grains allow air to go up past the neck. He could have connected the bulbs by a capillary etc but that would be beyond his rudimentary skills.
That was really cool. If you pulled a vacuum in there would it flow better?
Well i have to say, this is very impresive. Thank You for the informations about it. I won't play with mercury. :)
This looks like when a girl tries to pee standing
You've seen a girl trying to pee standing before? Kinda gross but okay .-.
Probably a dumb question but is there such thing as a mercury lava lamp? If not, is it something possible to create? I've seen you do some bizarre things with mercury so thought you might be the best person to ask.
Two problems: 1) you would need a transparent liquid medium with a density similar to mercury, 2) I don't think mercury expands and contracts enough with temperature to make a good lava lamp.
+hobbified Ahh, makes sense. Thanks for answering my question.
I'm sure there must be something you could add something to the wax to make it shimmery silver.
theres no dumb questions, but it would take a clear liquid dencer than mercury so it would float. unlike wax and water. ::)
Might be creepy to use mercury as the base with a kind of wax inside? would be opaque most of the time cept when ti hit the edges, then be like some alien?
Kids in Africa could have eaten that sand. How wasteful.
I would think that the hour glass wouldn't be consistent since temperature affects the molecular structure of Hg.
How long does it take exactly for the mercury to pass ? What is the original time , and how does it differ? Also does the time it takes for the mercury to pass change depending on temp ? Would it change day to day ? Does dross still form even in that glass and does it effect the time of diffusion ?
Michael Trudell
10 mins.
30 mins.
Of course it changes due to the change of viscosity. Therefore less viscosity, more flow.
Didn't get the last two.
A result is not predicable. Mercury is a liquid, and the transfer of mercury from the upper to the lower part needs a transfer of air from the lower to the upper part. You can do the same experiment using water or any other liquid stuff. A deviation from exact vertical position of the hour glass will allow more or less air to go to the upper glass. If the hour glass is in a very exact vertical position, none of the liquid material will pass down.
It is different if you have sand inside: Between the sand grains there is enough space to let the air pass to the upper glass. This allows the sand to follow the gravitation.
If it has a tube in the middle extending from above the mercury to the lower globe held firm in the middle the rate would be more constant since the air would not periodically interrupt the flow. Can't say how accurate it would actually be though.
Eh no. Mercury is pretty reliable even in temperature differences. Hence why thermometers were filled with mercury. Regardless of ambience, they were reliable
thats exactly what i was asking myself
I guess technically its a half-hourglass..... *ba-dum-tsss*
Hmmm mercury was used before in thermometer because it shrunk and spread at different temperature, my guess is it would suck to use it for calculating time if it's not a stable material. >.> So yeah dont think anyone else made a mercury hourglass before. >.>
Is there any measurement or comparison between the time that the sand and mercury are needed to transfer fully from upper to lower part of the sandglass?
To elaborate a bit, the equalization tube can be run internally through the throat small enough not to choke the flow, again somewhat interfering with the cosmetic appearance. just some thoughts just a few hours away from the new/next year.