Popping a Balloon of MERCURY (hg) in Slow Motion

Balloons with approximately 6lbs. of mercury in them being popped in slow motion. It took us a while to get this set up so absolute safety and containment could be done. Many people freak out a little watching our mercury videos but I assure you what you don't see in the videos is the precautions we take. (yet we always get lectured by Chicken Little types)
I used two high speed cameras to capture it at two different angles and speeds (300 and 600 fps) To the best of my knowledge this has never been done before.
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Don't try this at home.
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FAQ: "Where do you get this mercury?"
I worked at a plastics mfg and we used many mercury contactors in the process. Mercury contactors are heavy duty relays and were used to cycle resistance heaters in the extruders. Most of the contactors were 3 pole and rated for 480 volts. These contactors would fail and since there was mercury inside each one I'd have to decommission them and removed the mercury inside them. In several instances, the contactors would explode and sort of go "super nova" and actually burn up most of the wiring inside electrical panels, and the mercury would have to be cleaned up from the panels, and then I would have to completely re-wire the panels.




Music by Mad Mav
Rise of the Mad - 4th Mov (Allegretto)

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• slomo
• slow
• motion
• gallium like
• beautiful
• liquid metal
• time
• warp
• giant
• huge
• heavy
• balloon
• mercury
• quick silver
• hg
• quicksilver
• mesmerizing
• unreal
• taofledmaus
• casio
• exf1
• pro
• Mercury (element)
• Slow Motion
• dangerous
• warning

[YuriPRIMEpoland]

I wonder... how about making a slow motion vid with gun bullet travel through baloon full of mercury. I am curious because if given a dense enaugh liquid and high velocity the bullet should react as if hitting a solid object. Would love to see if it deforms in moment of impact.

[taofledermaus]

@YuriPRIMEpoland It would be pretty hard to contain that, the mercury would probably splatter all over the place. It is an interesting idea though.

[fatdrood]

what happens if you get that stuff on your skin?

[taofledermaus]

@fatdrood Nothing. Long term, repeated exposure isn't good though.

[CRAZYLOCKSMITH]

Amazing to watch. I didn't know mercury was that heavy

[taofledermaus]

@CRAZYLOCKSMITH Thank you! I really am enjoying your locksmithing videos, keep them coming!

[taofledermaus]

@champwagner Ok, guy who has none of his own videos...

[taofledermaus]

@TheBrissenden what's a dis?

[taofledermaus]

@KironStrife That's a creative idea. Might be hard as heck to pull off though. I'll look into it.

[KironStrife]

I just thought of a cool slomo shot. have a bullet travel between two charged electrical wires, and watch the spark jump to and from the bullet while in flight.

[taofledermaus]

@Saugerknaut I dont have any plans on dumping this in a lake.