Mercury can be found in a variety of non-laboratory items such as fluorescent light bulbs, thermometers, older pressure gauges, plumbing traps, manometers, barometer, thermostats, capacitors, and ...

Another advantage of alcohol is that the freezing temperature of mercury is around -38F, so a mercury thermometer is not useful in extremely cold weather.

Mercury thermometers have tubes with silver, metallic grey or black filling. Other colors indicate the device doesn’t contain mercury and can be thrown in the trash.

Being liquid allows mercury to be used in thermometers but also the fact that its change in volume comes at a pretty constant rate. Mercury will freeze into a solid at 40 degrees below zero, which ...

Mercury is a somewhat different metal in that it is liquid when most other metals are solid. It has a silvery-gray color, and although many thermometers today are digital, mercury is often used in ...

Another advantage of alcohol is that the freezing temperature of mercury is around -38 degrees Fahrenheit.

It was one of Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit's most famous inventions, in 1714. But after nearly 300 years on the market, the still-common mercury thermometer now appears headed for extinction.