Tag: electricity

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Does Mercury Conduct Electricity?

Does Mercury Conduct Electricity?

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I bought this from my science shop yesterday so that I could perform more experiments.

Why is it a liquid?

The reason for mercury being a liquid is complex. It is heavy; a chunk of iron can float on mercury. Compared to other metals, it does not conduct heat well. However, it conducts electricity fairly well.

Mercury is the only metal that is a liquid at normal temperatures and pressure. What makes mercury so special? Basically, it’s because mercury is bad at sharing… electrons, that is.

Most metal atoms readily share valence electrons with other atoms. The electrons in a mercury atom are bound more tightly than usual to the nucleus. In fact, the s electrons are moving so fast and close to the nucleus they exhibit relativistic effects, behaving as if they were more massive than slower-moving electrons.

Why does it conduct electricity?

Mercury is a liquid metal. As with all metals, the outer electrons are detached from the nuclei and form a kind of “sea of electrons” in which the rest of the atoms sit. A small electrical force, in other words a voltage, placed across any two points in this sea will make the electrons move, and that constitutes a current and makes a metal electrically conducting.

I wanted to see that mercury can conduct electricity. I opened mercury bottle, it has an inner closure, I’m not going to take it out because we need it.

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I’m going to put pins in it.

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I will flip the bottle and the mercury will be in contact with the pins and the circuit will turn on.

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It works nicely!

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This chemical will go into my favorite chemical list!

https://www.quora.com/Why-does-mercury-conduct-electricity-so-well

https://www.thoughtco.com/why-is-mercury-a-liquid-608454

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Burglar Door Alarm

Burglar Door Alarm

The last time I did an alarm that’s under a mat and it received a lot of likes. The link for that is here: How to Make a Burglar Alarm Mat. So today I have another alarm to make, and it involves a door. Make sure to follow the pictures and have fun.

Things you’ll need: String, a bottle cap, 9V battery, a small box, 3 alligator wires, speaker with sound or a piezo buzzer, a paper clip, and tape.

  1. Cut a hole outside of the box.20170701_150211
  2. Cut a piece of plastic from a bottle cap.20170701_150741
  3.  Put tape on one “tong” of an alligator clip and leave the other alone as shown in the picture.20170701_151111
  4. Build a circuit in the box as shown below. Make sure the speaker is working and the alligator clip with tape needs to be next to the hole.20170701_151321
  5. Attach a string to the piece plastic from the bottle cap. Then, put the piece of plastic between the alligator clip and make the string go through the hole.
  6. Make sure you see the circuit from the hole and the string cannot be blocked or tight.
  7. Now the alarm is done. When you pull the string the speaker will be activated.
  8. The door needs to pull the string, so find a place that the door knob moves away from the alarm.20170701_151847
  9. Tape or place the box in the right position.20170701_152559
  10. Tie the string to the door knob.20170701_152701.jpg
  11. Now your alarm is ready. When someone opens the door, the door knob will pull the string, the wire will be connected to the paperclip, and the speaker will be activated.

The reason I put tape on only on “tong” of the alligator clip is because the speaker will be activated when it has the piece of plastic between the first tong. The tape and plastic is an insulator. An electrical insulator is a material whose internal electric charges do not flow freely; very little electric current will flow through it under the influence of an electric field. This contrasts with other materials, semiconductors and conductors, which conduct electric current more easily. The property that distinguishes an insulator is its resistivity; insulators have higher resistivity than semiconductors or conductors.

When the door knob pulls the plastic with the string, the metal will touch and the speaker will be activated.

 

 

 

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How to Make a Burglar Alarm Mat

How to Make a Burglar Alarm Mat

If a wire connects the circuit will turn on. If a wire is disconnected the circuit will turn off. Wait, that gave me an idea! So today I’ll show you how to make a burglar alarm mat or an alarm under a mat.

Things you’ll need: Aluminum foil, paper clips, a battery, 3 pieces of wire, 2 straws, tape, and a speaker with sound (I used a piezo buzzer).20170612_124758

  1. Connect two pieces of wire on the battery and connect the speaker to one end.20170612_125814
  2. Connect one more wire to the speaker.20170612_124941
  3. Make a chain out of paper clips and connect it with the other wire.
  4. Tape the straws on the ends of the foil and tape the paperclips between them.20170612_125750
  5. Connect the other wire to another piece of foil.
  6. Stack the foils on top on each other and step on it. The speaker will turn on. You could also hide it under a rug or a mat.20170612_125524

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A wire is a single, usually cylindrical, flexible strand or rod of metal. Wires are used to bear mechanical loads or electricity and telecommunications signals. Wire is commonly formed by drawing the metal through a hole in a die or draw plate. Wire gauges come in various standard sizes, as expressed in terms of a gauge number. The term wire is also used more loosely to refer to a bundle of such strands, as in “multistranded wire”, which is more correctly termed a wire rope in mechanics, or a cable in electricity.

Wire comes in solid core, stranded, or braided forms. Although usually circular in cross-section, wire can be made in square, hexagonal, flattened rectangular, or other cross-sections, either for decorative purposes, or for technical purposes such as high-efficiency voice coils in loudspeakers. Edge-wound coil springs, such as the Slinky toy, are made of special flattened wire.