🚀 go-pugleaf

> : If your swimming pool was filled with mercury, could you walk on it?  (What
> : would happen if you tried it?)
> A friend and I tried to calculate the relevant facts about this late one
> night last week.  I think we decided that your foot would sink in, and
> then the extreme weight of the mercury would crush your foot.
> Basically, you will displace enough volume of mercury to equal your
> weight, which is more than enough to cover your foot.  It would also be
> mighty slippery, so you would probably slip and hurt yourself pretty
> badly.  Since i don't remember the exact  density of mercury, which is
> easy enough to look up, I'm not sure exactly how far you'd sink, but it
> would be enough to hurt you, i think.  It'd be hard to walk when you're
> sunk into it, also.
> 			John
> jkwatson@amh.amherst.edu
> 


John,

        The same laws of physics that apply to a swimming pool full of 
water also apply to a swimming pool filled with mercury.  The only 
notable difference would be that since the density is much greater on the 
mercury, you would not sink in as far.  I would suspect that you would 
need some sort of support, or you might fall onto your back into the 
mercury and sink in a bit.  Supported for balance, one might expect to 
sink into mercury to about their knees or less.  I don't think the 
mercury would crush ones foot however, as there would be an equalized 
pressure all about, only increased to painful levels if someone was to 
push you in deeper.  The deeper you are forced in, the more pressure, and 
thusly more pain.  Since mercury is a dense liquid metal, you could 
probably propel yourself, but just as you can not walk when submerged in 
water up to your buoyancy level, you can not walk on mercury per se.

        All this takes into account that we are ignoring the fact that if 
you were exposed to a swimming pool of mercury you would be poisoned by 
the mercury vapors.  Did anyone hear about the guys that went into a 
mercury storage vat a few years back to do some welding?  Some of them 
died, as a result, and all suffered severe neurological damages 
immediately following the incident.  This was from the residual mercury 
vapors and metal.  The tank was empty when they went in..........sq