"DrollTroll" wrote in message
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"ATP*" wrote in message
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"Randy" wrote in message
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On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:15:37 -0400, "DrollTroll"
wrote:


"RB" wrote in message
. ..
Estate sale, fellow has about 5 lbs of liquid metallic mercury.
it was used as adjustable mass/weight in benchrest rifles.
Owner/heir is concerned about EPA issues etc.
But it has a value somewhere.
Do scrap metal dealers buy it?
Is there a price/lb?

Suggest someone bring it to a local HS/college lab.
Makes a great class demo:
Put it in a clear quart container. Put water in another clear quart
container. Have class pass by, each student lifting the quart of water,
then merc.
Most will not be able to lift the quart of mercury--for two reasons:
some
simply don't have the strength, but for many, it is so unexpectedly
heavy,
they think it's actually glued to the counter top, and stop trying.

2# vs. about 28#, more than a 25# barbell plate--not easy to lift off
balance or out of position.

One of the kids WILL lift it, then drop it. That could be a problem.

Thank You,
Randy

Some idiot science teacher in a local middle school sprinkled a small
amount of mercury on a lab table to show the kids how the drops roll.
That episode cost the school district a few thousand dollars in
monitoring and cleanup. If a quart of mercury was dropped, there would be
a financial disaster.

Which of course was a knee-jerk bureaucratic reaction by some asshole.

That's today's reality, whether you agree with it or not.