You may know that metals will melt if you get them hot enough, and may have seen pictures of molten steel being formed into useful objects. Do you know how how steel is? It's about 2500oF (1370oC)! Yikes, that's hot! But steel is nowhere near being the highest-melting metal. That distinction goes to tungsten (6200oF or 3400oC).OK, so what's the lowest-melting metal? You may know the answer to this. It's a liquid, silvery metal that is sometimes used in thermometers - mercury! It's not so common to find mercury thermometers today. This metal is very poisonous, so people avoid using it whenever possible. Most thermometers now use a kind of alcohol (usually a red or green liquid) instead. But this is beside the point - what is mercury's melting point? Brrr... it's a chilly -40oF, which oddly enough, happens to also be -40oC. But there's another metal, called gallium, that would liquefy on a warm enough day. Its melting point is 86oF (30oC). The photo above shows a small sample of gallium actually melting in Dr. B's hand!
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