.
Imagine being so strong,
and so powerful,
that you could physically
melt metal with your hands!
Gold,
iron,
and even titanium.
Technically, yes,
you can melt metal with your hands,
but not every type of metal.
There's a metal that's so soft
that it can melt at just under 30°C (85.6°F).
This metal is called gallium,
and after playing around with it in your hands for
just a couple of seconds,
it quickly liquefies.
There are other metals as well that have
the same melting temperature,
such as francium and cesium.
But you're going to want to stay away from them as
they're radioactive and
can catch on fire if they're not handled properly.
The great thing about gallium is
it's entirely safe for you to use.
It's essentially just extremely expensive Play-Doh.
But we can already melt these materials.
What would it be like
if you could melt every type of metal?
Melting metal is pretty difficult.
A regular campfire flame won't be able to do the trick.
It takes an incredibly high temperature to melt metal.
And to do this, we need foundries.
Foundries are used to reach extremely high temperatures
and maintain them.
Depending on what you want to melt, like
gold, for example,
the temperature needs to be nearly 1,000°C (1,832°F).
This means that in order for you to melt metal,
your hands would need to be at least this hot.
And since the max temperature your body can get to before dying
is a measly 44°C (115.7°F),
you'd end up melting yourself if your body went up to this temperature.
But let's assume you'd survive.
If you wanted to melt metal,
you'd have to be a walking furnace.
Not only would you be able to melt aluminum, iron, and steel,
you'd also be melting just about everything else you touched.
That's because you'd be as hot as molten lava.
You'd be a giant fireball of destruction.
But as quickly as you'd destroy everything around you,
you'd be just as easily destroyed.
But how?
Let's assume you're doing your thing and burning up some metal.
All of a sudden, it starts raining.
Instantly, a massive explosion would occur.
That's due to the water reacting with the hot molten metal.
If water, or any sort of moisture, touches the melting metal,
then it will expand to 1,600 times larger
than its original volume.
This creates a massive steam explosion
that spreads the hot liquid metal.
If you're not extremely careful,
you're bound to cause some severe damage to things
and people you won't want to hurt.
Melting metal with our bare hands might
sound like it could be fun,
but there's no reason you'd ever want to do it.
Apart from looking pretty,
metal is used in all kinds of electronics, cars and
even in some prescription drugs.
Metals are an essential part of the world we live in,
and we definitely wouldn't want to go around destroying and melting all of them.
But what would the world be like if metal had never existed?
Well, that sounds like a story for another WHAT IF.