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Understanding Mercury: Properties, Uses, and Historical Significance

Test your knowledge of mercury, its properties, uses, and historical significance with this quiz!

#Chemistry #Mercury #Toxicology #Environmental Science #History of Science

1 From the mid-18th to the mid-19th centuries, a process called "carroting" was used in the making of ________ hats.

2 Liquid mercury is a part of a popular secondary reference electrode (called the calomel electrode) in ________ as an alternative to the standard hydrogen electrode.

3 What does the following picture show?  Mercury output in 2005   The deep violet glow of a mercury vapor discharge in a germicidal lamp, whose spectrum is rich in invisible ultraviolet radiation.   Amalgam filling

4 [17][18] The ancient Greeks used mercury in ointments; the ________ and the Romans used it in cosmetics which sometimes deformed the face.

5 Mercury, as ________, is widely used in the manufacture of mascara.

6 Gaseous mercury is used in mercury-vapor lamps and some "neon sign" type advertising signs and ________.

7 The ________, a fertilizer and later petrochemical company, was found responsible for polluting the bay from 1932 — 1968.

8 ________ enacted a total ban on the use of mercury in the manufacturing and import/export of mercury products, effective January 1, 2008.

9 For example, most thermometers now use pigmented ________ instead of mercury.

10 [19] The Indian word for ________ is Rasavātam which means "the way of mercury".

💡 Interesting Facts

  • the velvet belly lantern shark (pictured) has proteins in its liver that can detoxify heavy metals such as cadmium, copper, mercury, and zinc.
  • tired of taking measurements by hand, Seymour London created the first automatic sphygmomanometer using an old blood pressure cuff, a column of mercury, a pump from a fish tank and a microphone.
  • when yellow crystals of mosesite, a very rare mineral found in deposits of mercury, are heated to 186 °C (367 °F), they become isotropic.
  • the orange webcap mushroom (pictured) can bioaccumulate the toxic element mercury.
  • Robert Howlett, photographer of the iconic picture of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, died from exposure to the arsenic and mercury used in the photographic process.
  • Jean Robic, winner of the 1947 Tour de France, was so light that at mountain summits he was handed lead and mercury-ballasted drinking bottles for gravity-assisted descents.
  • Lavaca Bay in Texas has been classified as a superfund site due to mercury contamination by Alcoa.
  • alchemist James Price committed suicide by drinking prussic acid after being challenged to prove he could turn mercury into gold.
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