My name is Mercury Mole, but most of my friends call me Quicksilver. They call me
Quicksilver because I am silver-white, metallic, and a liquid at ordinary temperatures. I
was named mercury after the planet Mercury. Hg symbolizes me because the Latin word hydrargyrum
means "liquid silver." My electron configuration is 1s22s22p63s23p63d104s24p64d104f145s25p65d106s2.
My specific gravity is 13.5+. Some of my notable occurrences include Almaden, Spain;
Idrija, former Yugoslavia; Italy; California, Oregon, Texas, and Arkansas, USA. I belong
to a select group. We call ourselves The Periodic Table of Elements. I am one of the
transition elements. We are ranked by atomic number, and my atomic number is 80. My atomic
weight is 200.59. I have 80, protons, 80 electrons, and 121 neutrons. I melt at about
-39ēC and boil at about 357ēC. When frozen, I form crystals in the rhombohedral system
at low pressure, and in the tetragonal system at high pressure. I rank about 67th
in natural abundance among other elements in rocks. I can neither scratch nor be
scratched. I can usually be found in my pure form or combined with silver in small amounts
but I am mostly found in the ore cinnabar. I can be obtained by heating cinnabar in a
current of are and by condensing the vapor. I do not conduct heat very well as compared
with other metals but I am a fair conductor of electricity. I easily form alloys with many
metals, such as gold, silver, and tin. These alloys are called amalgams. I do not combine
with iron or platinum. The most important salts I help create are mercury chloride,
mercurous chloride, mercury fulminate, and mercuric sulfide. I am very basic.
I am used in thermometers because I expand at a constant rate with a rise in
temperature. I can also be found in other types of scientific apparatus, such as vacuum
pumps, barometers, manometers, sphygmomanometers, electric rectifiers and switches,
paints, batteries, and fluorescent and high intensity bulbs. Mercury-vapor lamps are used
as a source of ultraviolet rays in homes and for sterilizing water.
I am acutely hazardous as a vapor and in the form of water-soluble salts, which corrode
membranes of the body. If I am ingested or absorbed by the skin or mucous membranes, I can
cause skin disorders, hemorrhage, liver and kidney damage, and gastrointestinal
disturbances. I am contained in many commercially produced products and sometimes
considered a hazardous waste when disposed and therefore am not permitted to enter
municipal solid waste facilities. When I am an alloy employed in dentistry. Compounds I am
in have been used as insecticides, in rat poisons, and as disinfectants. Workers in many
industries have been affected by my pollution of rivers, lakes, and oceans and has become
a serious environmental problem.
At first, you might think that I am a furry little animal. But I am not. I am a mole
which is a concept. Every day you encounter things that are usually packaged together and
described as a group. When you buy 12 of the same item, such as eggs, you say that you
have bought a dozen. When a store owner who has purchased 144 pens will say that they have
a gross of pens. Another example is an office manager would order a ream of paper rather
than asking for 500 sheets. Dozen, gross, and ream are terms that describe groups. Like
these terms, it is convenient to have a special name to describe a group of atoms. The
group in chemistry is the mole, and it contains 6.02 × 1023 items. I, Mercury
Mole, represent one mole of mercury. One mole of mercury is 6.02 × 1023 atoms
of mercury. A mole of mercury is 200.59 g. The number 6.02 × 1023 is known as
Avogadro’s number (abbreviated N) in honor of Amadeo Avogadro, an Italian
chemist and physicist.
