How To Feel Like A Superman By Melting Metal With Your Hands! An Intro To Gallium

Feeling less than the superman you are lately? Would you feel better if you could melt metal in your hands?

Well fret no more, you can melt metal in your hands, but you have to get hold of a particular metal, and have it melt only with the warmth of your hands!

Introducing Gallium, a metal in group 13 of the periodic table with an atomic number of 31 and the chemical symbol Ga. It is a metal which liquefies at 29.76 °C (85.57 °F) which is a tad over room temperature, and this means that if you hold a solid piece in your hands for a while, it will melt right there!

Unfortunately Gallium is not found in nature, but as gallium compounds in certain ores and in bauxite. When refined into its pure form, it becomes a soft and silvery metal which can melt into liquid which would looks a lot like mercury to most people who had no clue of this fascinating metal.

And if you ever try to handle this metal, here are a few DONT's

1. DO NOT let this be messed around with by anyone below 11 years old. It is very messy/sticky. And if spilled, it is very hard to clean up.
2. DO NOT use bare hands if possible. Wear latex gloves when you liquefy it, just to make sure not to get any on your skin. Even though it is non toxic, it is not the best thing to be in your body.
3. DO NOT, and I mean DO NOT, store in a glass container when the gallium hardens. It expands if stored in glass and it will crack the glass and could cause it to splinter which can cause injury.