Hi everyone!
Welcome back to Cody's lab.
So I've got here a jug of about 50 pounds of mercury. (~22.5kg)
And I've brought this down along with seven other flasks.
And I've also built a reinforced box.
Which is lined with plastic.
I've got some two-by-fours and some concrete.
Mercury is incredibly heavy.
An aquarium wouldn't handle it.
And today we're gonna see if this liquid metal is dense enough for me to stand on.
There we go.
I didn't want those leaking, did I?
So I freshly distilled a bunch of this.
So we should be, putting all together all my clean mercury.
I like how it makes bubbles.
See that?
You can actually see bubbles in the ...
That is actually air bubbles in the mercury.
It's almost like soapy water.
One of eight.
Alright, so here's the last flask.
It works really well to pour it from the level of the mercury.
That way it doesn't splash.
Oh, my hands are freezing.
I think the mercury's temperature right now is about negative 1 Celsius, or 30 degrees Fahrenheit.
This mercury should be clean; I did distill it once...
I mean, it's not triple distilled, but it looks like most of this that's on top is literally just dust.
Ok, ready for this?
Let's see how much I can get off just by squeezing off the top.
Ohh, that's nice.
Now I would do this barefoot to give people something to comment on ...
Eh, Mercury is not as bad as most people think ...
But I do have an open wound from an ingrown toenail on my other foot,
So I think I will put on a pair of boots
Okay, I think we're ready.
Let's see what happens.
[Laughs]
This definitely does not want my foot down in there.
[Grunts]
Such pressure.
Okay, second one. Let's see if I can go up.
[Loses balance and laughs]
Well, I'm floating on it
[Laughs]
It's not easy.
Okay... Okay...
I think I... I think...
Ooooh
[Laughs]
It's hard to keep the feet like, down at the same level.
Okay... Okay...
I... I Can kind of brace myself against the side of the container...
And I am floating on it.
There's about an inch of mercury underneath my feet.
If I pull my feet away from the side, so I don't use that...
Okay, okay...
[Laughs]
It's like trying to balance a broom on your hand ...
[Laughs]
[Grunts]
... Except I'm in the broom.
Okay!
[Grunts]
I fell over.
It's actually hard to get back up 'cause ...
[Audible straining[
I have to put my weight on 'em to get 'em to back down.
[Laughs]
I can actually set this foot all the way down.
And let's mark it with a marker
- What ... - What level I'm sinking...
So my foots all the way at the bottom of the container...
And then to there.
Alright.
Let me put my other one in.
Here, take that marker.
Whoo...
See? So you can clearly see that I am indeed floating.
See?
Boing... Boing...
Here, to prove I'm not on my tiptoes.
[Laughs]
Th... That's actually really.. hard to... stay up like that.
[Grunts and laughs]
Yeah, see? Watch this.
[Grunts]
That's... so hard to keep your balance.
There's nothing solid to push against.
[Kanyon laughs at Cody]
And down I go.
[Laughs]
[Grunts]
Pull down
[Grunts]
Okay... There we go. I'm all the way to the bottom.
I like go...
Out I come!
[Laughs]
Alright Kanyon, you want to try standing in it?
-You've got smaller feet, so... -Oh dear...
I've got a pair of boots for you.
These boots are huge.
Yeah... They're a little big for you. That'll actually help.
-You're on the bottom? -Oh man.
-Okay... I gotcha.
[Kanyon gasps]
-You're floating.
[Kanyon laughs]
-Oh, that is so weird. -[Cody laughs]
-Like somebody's squeezing your feet?
Yes.
-Can I let go of you? -Oh gosh, no.
[Laughter]
-[Kanyon squeals]
-I got'cya.
I float a lot, like...
-Oh you're lighter than me...
Well yeah, but...
Focus on them and see like how high I come up when I...
-Okay.
-Alright.
-Wanna step out?
-Okay
So there you have it.
When I stood on Mercury I only sunk into about mid-calf, and became incredibly unstable.
I think you still could walk on it, or remain standing on it.
Maybe if you could widen your stance a bit and get a lot more practice.
The problem was is my center of mass is all the way up here.
Whereas the mercury was pushing me from way down there.
And so, if my center of mass got off from the center of lift, it would just force me over, very easily.
Usually when you're in water, the water comes like way up to your neck.
So.. You know, there's no problem there.
But, the mercury of course is really dense.
You know, 13 times denser than water, so you don't sink nearly that far.
But the volume of my foot and a little bit of my leg was enough to displace my weight in mercury
Which is of course what you need to do in order to float.
Now you don't really need your weight of a liquid in order to float on it of course.
I mean, you could float a battleship in a glass of water if you could put it inside of a...
Dish that is the exact right shape and size for it.
What really matters is the pressure.
And what I thought was really cool is, uh...
When I was standing in the mercury, It felt like my feet were being squeezed.
Because they were.
like my foot is kind of like a void and the mercury was trying to flow into it, and that creates a lot of pressure.
Both on the sides and on the bottom.
On the sides, the the force kinda cancels out, and so it just, you know, squeezed tight.
But on the bottom, that force is canceled by my body weight; pulling down.
And...
If the f...
If I put more weight on, I'll sink down into the mercury, and get deeper. The pressure will increase.
And the force will stabilize.
Assuming the mercury is deep enough.
Or if I'm too far down, the force of mercury will lift me up until the pressure decreases and it stabilizes.
I thought that was really cool.
Standing on a foam mattress, such as this, feels a lot like standing on the mercury.
It's got a little bit of a give, but it does support your weight.
If this video is well received I might try it again.
With uh... You know, a bunch more mercury,
A big, wider dish,
And see if I could actually walk on it.
But you know right now. I'm, I'm so sore from just carrying that quarter ton of mercury around,
Let's see how it goes.
Until then...
I'll see you next time.