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  • I would have enjoyed watching the bell reach room temperature slowly. It would have been a melting mercury bell then. I wouldn't have expected it to ring - given that it is a property of tempering the metal not just of solidifying it. But interesting nonetheless.

  • This was a pointless project. Time that could be spent in research is being spent for a bell made of mercury that has no value whatsoever.

  • semi-impossible... contradiction in terms, do we actually pay for guys to do this? pointless beyond belief, i dont understand how it is 'undooable' its just like casting an ice cube just smaller, colder and less brittle so in fact it would be easier to cast mercury than ice!

  • @Darcshadow5 I'd like to see you cast an Ice Bell to prove that fact.

  • I admire this guy for doing undoable :) Thinking outside of the box, letting the little boy play a little in the middle of serious adult world... Everyone should follow his example instead of whining tha at lead ballon is impossible ;)

  • 3:38..just cracks me up! :) Brilliant vid!

  • Lol the Professor is so bored by that guy's talking :D

  • That is kind of useless, is his salary paid by taxes, or the hard working students or parents to do this kind of impractical stuff?

  • I cannot express in words how pointless this exercise is. what are you going to do with it when it thaws out a destroys itself?

  • Why?

  • @EWt5lg5alQWLqPViO9vk Why not ?

  • why not you try a hammer?

  • where is the guy from? his accent is all over the place

  • What a thoroughly bizarre waste of time.

  • i hope he did that shite in his own time.

  • The Mythbusters made a lead ballon which I think is more interesting than a mercury bell.

  • 3:43

  • 3:46 sums up the whole event for the professor lol :P

  • I hope professor didn't put that pen in his mouth because u know, sometime people do it.

    Mercury is not exactly a very gentle metal with human nervous system :)

    This however can explain why the guy made a bell of mercury then...

  • The professor/Einstein guy doesn't look interested one bit. hahahahha!

  • This is kind of interesting, but... why a bell of all things? I suppose why NOT a bell, but I'm interested to know if it was a random shape picked or if he chose it for a reason...

    I love how disinterested the professor looks. hehe.

  • Is this guy trying to act like he has a British accent because he' s obviously failing.

  • @SupremeCommander360 After living in a place where most people have a different accent, some people start to incorporate sounds they hear daily. Some never fully lose their original accent and develop a kind of hybrid, while some will keep their old one or just take on the new one altogether. I would think seeing as this man appears to be an American who has been living in London for some time that he's just sort of unconsciously picked up on some of the familiar sounds he hears every day.

  • mercury bell is a good name for a person...

  • Does anyone think Andrea Sella talks like Lloyd Grossman? 'Whoooo lives in a house like this?'

  • start listening from 2:55 and close your eyes.

  • @bl4ck0p that was the funniest thing i have ever heard

  • @bl4ck0p hahaha rlly funny 

  • It's probably too cold to vibrate

  • wow lol, id just walk away from him

  • The Professor is a very nice man, but his total disinterest in the man's rambling was obvious. 

  • omg im doing a project on mercury and this is so cool!!!!!!

  • *Smashes bell with pen* "It dents very easily" oops...

  • wow, that dude is a nerd "very much like a tomb in egypt". The professor obviously did not care about this. Mercury is old news, its a nasty toxic element that is proven to make you go mad

  • when the Professor was bout to hit it i was like...

    "OH boi! its ganna sound like a bell!"

    and then i was disappointed :(

  • profesor was not amused :P and neither was I. I mean, I've seen people make things with Mercury and liquid nitrogen by putting them in a mold. Oh Professor, why did they make you travel so far for nothing? :/

  • tasty drum beat at 3:55

  • what kind of accent has that guy (not the professor) it's weird

  • @kristijanadrian "everything can be solid, liquid or a evaporated." oh realy? then show me liquid carbon....

  • @RoMMeL1337ak47 You've obviously never googled it. I just read an article about liquid carbon forming nanotubes on a molecular level the title is "Liquid carbon plays role in nanotube formation"

  • @viper100200 i thought i diddent need to but aparently i do, thx

  • @RoMMeL1337ak47 Also Google the spelling of didn't when you have a moment...lol

  • @RoMMeL1337ak47

    everything in the periodic table can be a liquid, solid, gas, or plasma,

  • @Slashpoint001 I wish bose-einstein condensate :3

  • @Slashpoint001 nope you know nothing about chemistry :/ iodine cannot be a liquid it is the only element and one of the only 2 substances (CO2 being the other one) that sublimates (goes straight from solid to gas with no liquid state).

  • @wideangle44 is this the ultimate truth or is the range of temperature just too small to be achievable yet where it is liquid?

  • @wideangle44 iodine and CO2 can both be liqiuds, why even some of the proffesors work is on liqiud CO2 and super critical fluids. It all depends on pressure, CO2 and iodine are never liquids at room tempreture however.

  • @wideangle44 Look, dont tell me I know nothing about chemistry thats a very crude statement considering that my comment was the first comment from me you have seen. And iodine can be a liquid, its just not a liquid for very long when its exposed to an increasing temperature.

  • @Slashpoint001 nope.

  • @RoMMeL1337ak47 carbon actually does melt, it just melts at such an astronomically large number that nobody ever really works with it

  • of all things, why a bell? i like the idea of mercury being a solid functional object, and i would have asked the same thing as the professor wondering if it was to accomplish something. i would have liked to see something mechanical, or maybe if it could actually ring. i feel bad for the professor, he doesn't need this kind of time wasted. i'd much rather see experiments done with solidified mercury and elements it reacts with

  • 5 mins of my life gone on a mercury bell....hmmm ok!

  • It lacks the metallic lustre / may be in this video, how about its bonding, whether crysatalline, it seems amorphous.may become sonorous upon slow coolingin which case it may have metallic bond, and a thinner bell may do.

  • the professor was all "a mercury bell. yeah. ok."

  • the professor really lookes like he is the most bored person in the planet in this video, so would i.

  • "Not very exciting, is it?" OUCH!

  • retarded.... a mercury bell.  so what.

  • mercury should not be allowed in the human body even in parts per billion,

  • @futurehelp Thanks captain obvious.

  • the proffesor owns lol

  • Maybie you could make something from mercury that you could wear in the polar winter's, a pauldron perhaps? XD

  • 0:46 - 1:00. He sounds kinda like HappyConsoleGamer. XD

  • yeah this guys strange mercury obsession is probably exhasurbated by the vast amount of mercury toxicity he has suffered from. The professor looks like he was bored out of his mind and totally not interested about the Mercury Bell that DOESNT RING!

  • can you touch that thing?

  • Science "entirely for fun" --- mmmmmmm... BLISS!!!

  • idiot

  • have you melted it already?..... xD

  • this guy has a kind of american accent.

  • i want to see that photo of a minor floating in a vat of mercury.

  • How about Bromine? I know it's a halogen. but it'd still be cool.

  • It sounds like he's trying to hide his accent with an American accent.

  • Actually, I think Anrea Sella is Canadian. I am not 100% sure but it would certainly explain the accent.

  • @shoshanq well, that isn't necessarily a canadian accent lol.

  • Try caesium...

  • not very exciting sound and poisonous...great! :D

    have anyone ever made a bell out of potassium for example...let's make it!!!

    good job :)

  • This is how true science happens, though.

    What if he made this mercury bell and something unexpected happens? That's the only way people discover new things.

  • this actually contains my bell...... xD

  • Not very exiting, lol.

  • the professor was definitely not excited about the mercury bell. Well, who'd be excited about a mercury bell that doesn't ring?

  • this guy seems like he's suffered some damage from his mercury obsession

  • The professor looks like he came to London for nothing..

  • @Airsofter1995 I think that's utter rubbish - this is very interesting

  • @basherofnoggins Umm, yeah, riiiight...

  • I even think the Professor thinks this guy's a nerd.

  • @Cyrilthemonkey Haha ya..The Professor is like the cool kid, of the science world. This guy just annoyed me.

  • not very exciting is it? lol

  • " and here is my bell" lol

  • IMHO, it's too thick to ring.

  • I think Sella is a little mental from being around mercury too much. And his accent is really funny and messed up from living in England for too long.

  • Here's a link to that picture in the NG Dr Sella mentions. The guy from this website also sells the nicest periodic table posters in the world.

    theodoregray (.) com/PeriodicTable/Images/Mercu­ryMiner.JPG

  • Professor? Would it be possible to make a bell out of gallium?

  • and much easier too under a cold atmosphere.

  • 3:54

    lol

  • awesome! I too am very fascinated with mercury... and helium too!

  • same here! :D

  • Andrea came to a hall near us and we went to his lecture as part of a college trip :D

    yayayay.

  • Curious. Was that ice at the edge of the bell or mercury that overflowed from the mold (or something else)?

  • prof was bored lol

  • Are there more london videos coming?

  • yes

  • Excellent!

    I do love your videos, and the non-table ones are pretty darn interesting!

  • what is solid mercury like? i imagine its alot like lead?

  • And you didn't have to, thanks to this video! Not a waste of your time at all since the first few seconds of video explain everything.

  • Wow... I never realised mercury`s melting point is THAT low.

  • I like the reaction of the prof :D

  • the prof was like yes yes yes ah yes yes lol

  • I noticed that too

  • is that freezer -70 Fahrenheit or Celsius

  • celcius

  • noice i want one

  • you spelled that wrong.

  • it's fantastic that he was able to make the bell but i would of been a bit disappointed going all over to him only to find out it didn't do anything

  • Whoa! Mercury bell. 5 stars.

  • I would really like to see a timelapse of the bell melting!

  • I guess so. At least some of them. But since the professor said that you can find it as vapor in hot countries, I guess that it vaporizes way below boilingpoint.

  • Mercury is only poisonous when ingested. It's perfectly harmless to touch, as long as you don't swallow etc any. You may have heard the bell guy mention he saw a picture of someone sitting on mercury.

  • Yeah, but jacobssandy was talking about coating it in chocolate... But isn't Mercury vapor(don't think I'm using a right word for that, sorry not good at english) toxic as well?

  • Yes. It is vapour, but at the right temperature it is a solid. Mercury is often found in thermometers, but for example on antarctica, they have to use alchohol because the mercury would freeze. So you see, everything or at least most of the things on the periodic table, can be an gas, a liquid or solid. I hope this answer your question because i'm not so good at this ^^

  • what confuses me is that mercury is metal and it still can vapour...

    Do you know the temperature in witch it melts?

  • If you heat anything up to a certain temperature, it becomes a gass. Mercury's meltingpoint is -38C and the boilingpoint is 356,7C

    Since pure Mercury is a liquid in house temperature it can be changed to vapor. So if you're confused about the liquid thing, thing of iron and ice. Ice is a solid form for water and melts at 0C. Iron is just the same, only that it has a higher meltingpoint at 1500C give or take.

  • But doesn't metals atoms bond slightly different than water molecules atoms do, or I'm just hopelessly confused again???

  • Watch the video about Mercury.

  • I did... And I'm still confused about all that vapourizing metal thing, dose other metals slowly vapourise at melting points as well or it's only mercury?

  • They still form crystals so yes and no.

  • That would be an awesome prank, make a frozen bell of mercury and then coat it in chocolate and give it to your friend to take a bite. He would become mad as a hatter.

  • And soon dead as well... after all it melts at really low temp and is deadly as well...

  • I thought it just makes you go mad

  • Tell it to all thous dead Alchemist out there who died from mercury poisoning trying to achieve immortality... Ups, you cant, why? Because they're dead XD

  • But you could go and dig up their bones and if the bones can answer you then you would know that yes it does provide immortality. It is possible they died in the way that we could see, but the bones are still alive.

  • Than lets take our trusty shovels and l DIG SOME BONES!!!!!

  • cool, i've never seen solid mercury before

  • cool video i like that scientific stuff

  • He sounds australian

  • I'm pretty sure Sella's accent is Canadian.

  • no way, he's either canadian or american

  • I'd bank on canadian or an american that lives close to Canada.

  • Cool! Scientists are allowed to have fun:D

  • The mercury bell beats you pulling down a tree tho.

  • DAMMIT!!

  • But is it art???

  • He did it just to see if he could. Whether or not he produced something of immediate utility is irrelevant. This kind of basic curiosity is a cornerstone of scientific inquiry, and should always be encouraged. But at the very least, he's increasing interest in chemistry by featuring it in this video.

  • perhapes the bell is too thick if you look at regular bells they are quite thin but this bulky bell is just too bulky

  • AWESOME!

  • Dr Andrea Sella is one of many crazy lecturers in UCL's chemistry department.... I do miss it so.

  • been waiting for this lol

  • Aren't there more important things to do in Chemistry?

  • Let the scientists pursue what interests them and who knows what they'll discover... :-) Many scientific discoveries were made through serendipity.

  • lol the other guy had a half american half british accent, sounds kinda wierd :P

  • Nicholase Cage. Doing the impossible. Making a mercury belllll

  • Okay, silly question but what was the mould made of?

  • Thats not a silly question. I would like to know myself.

  • I can't wait to go to UCL for chemistry !! :):) I love nottingham as well though xD

    love the vids!

  • You HAVE TO check out his CPS (Chemical Physical Society) lectures when they're on.... so much fun and never gets old!

  • So, since he went to the trouble of making the bell, could he explain why doesn't it work? That would make a much better video scientifically.

  • Well he said it's got the wrong elasticity - that's good enough an explanation for me. And it did work - it just didn't sound very good.

    It's not a physics thing, is it? Otherwise it would be called the Physics Table of Videos and that just doesn't have a good ring to it, if you'll excuse the pun :-)

  • the Proff. is so funny using it like a drum, the man holding it was like DONT DENT MY BELL!!!!!

    chemistry for life!!!

  • hi all.... to find out what we're doing before we've even done it, you can now follow periodicvideos on Twitter! ;)

  • I love London

    I love Chemistry

    And I love the coiffure of the professor :D

    Thanks and all the best from Germany :)

  • originally American turning English???

  • Wow...! How bored must you get, as a scientist, to think about creating a mercury bell and then actually getting to do it? I love the professor's reaction, though. Hears the guy's story out, sees the object of art, then starts poking/hitting it to see what sound it makes :)) Awesome vid!

  • No sound when it's hit

  • mercury... does not have a nice ring to it!

  • IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL!

  • I was waiting for that thing to mutha fuckin RING damn it...

  • sorry, but wasnt as interesting as it sounds...

    specially that he had no intention of making it (well, other than FUN)!!!

  • that professor was only like 1/2 as cool as professor afro

  • yes...yes...yes...oh!

  • I can't help but imagine a science fiction story in which two aliens from a much colder planet discuss Earth. "Did you know that on Earth the temperatures are hot enough to melt mercury?"

    I don't know if temperatures at which mercury is solid allow for any chemistry that could give rise to life, but it's an amusing thought. I do know that helium gets quite interesting close to absolute zero.

  • Yea, I've often thought the same thing. It's interesting learning about planets that have atmospheres made up of the vapours of metals that are solids on our planet, or that have oceans of lead as an example.

  • Thats an interesting question. It would be around 200K so that would mean that the chemical reactions would be rather slow and some reactions that are spontaneous on Earth may not be on another planet so they would require some energy to start up. But of course it is possible because there are an infinite number of possible compounds that could create life so finding one that could require reactions that are spontaneous at 200K sounds very possible and given that many planets are cold is likely.

  • great as usual

  • I loved the explanation for why he made it; he just made it to make it.

    It's sort of like when they asked a famous mountain climber (his name escapes me) why he climbed mountains and he said something like "because they're there".