I grew up at a time when Mercury was not viewed as the major health hazard it is now. In our innocence, the breaking of a thermometer in a physics lab and the spilling of the liquid metal did not result in the shutting down of the building but an occasion to play with the droplets, which was fun.
The high density, metallic nature, and being liquid at room temperatures makes mercury unusual in so many ways and we see further evidence of this in the way that a drop of mercury vibrates at different frequencies.
I remember as a child playing with a toy that was a tilt maze with a drop of mercury you had to work through the maze without dropping it into the wrong holes.
I’m sure the shape of the vibrations follows some special function named after an 18th century mathematician. Which one?
david @2: You mean Legendre polynomials?
I think you are referring to Lissajous figures.
At risk of cross-troping …
Vibrating Mercury Drop
is a fine name for a … musical ensemble … of some kind.
Some of the modes remind me of Zernike polynomials: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zernike_polynomials
I remember building a Murcury Heart. See http://youtu.be/m6631u7d4E0 although I remember being able to keep mine beatig far loner than in this video.
Where is Steve McQueen now that we need him?
starskeptic,
Ok, I give up. What is the Steve McQueen connection?
The movie, “The Blob”, starred Steve McQueen.
#8,
Yeah, that film was a riot! It was his first lead role, I think.