Why is Mercury liquid at room temperature? (1 Viewer)

_Anonymous

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I understand that Mercury has a full outer 6s shell, meaning it doesn't want to share Electrons.

Firstly, why isn't it a Noble gas then? Aren't noble gases the most stable elements (Ik that Mercury isn't a gas at room temp, but still).

Secondly, I tried searching up why Mercury is a liquid at room temp and people started talking about the 6s electrons travelling very close to the Nucleus at high speeds which doesn't make sense; isn't the 6s orbital 6 energy shells away from the nucleus? How is it so close to the Nucleus? They then mention about relativity.

Could someone please answer the questions I have above? Thanks.
 

Queenroot

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I understand that Mercury has a full outer 6s shell, meaning it doesn't want to share Electrons.

Firstly, why isn't it a Noble gas then? Aren't noble gases the most stable elements (Ik that Mercury isn't a gas at room temp, but still).

Secondly, I tried searching up why Mercury is a liquid at room temp and people started talking about the 6s electrons travelling very close to the Nucleus at high speeds which doesn't make sense; isn't the 6s orbital 6 energy shells away from the nucleus? How is it so close to the Nucleus? They then mention about relativity.

Could someone please answer the questions I have above? Thanks.
Remember that electrons can jump shells.
 

Queenroot

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6s higher velocities, more momentum, can jump into the closest shell.
 

_Anonymous

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6s higher velocities, more momentum, can jump into the closest shell.
Thanks. Do you know why Mercury is a liquid at room temperature though, or why it's not classified in the Noble Gases section (ik it's a liquid, but it has a stable valence shell)?
 

Queenroot

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Thanks. Do you know why Mercury is a liquid at room temperature though, or why it's not classified in the Noble Gases section (ik it's a liquid, but it has a stable valence shell)?
more momentem gives it more mass, which keeps it from becoming a gas. And I assume there's some other factors involved.
 

_Anonymous

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more momentem gives it more mass, which keeps it from becoming a gas. And I assume there's some other factors involved.
Right, will we learn more about why elements are at their current state in room temperature in Year 11/12?
 

ichila101

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Right, will we learn more about why elements are at their current state in room temperature in Year 11/12?
Based off of the new syllabus you will be looking at the properties and structure of elements which will be related to their chemical and physical composition however I believe it will be covered in one or two lessons only and wont really deal with specific elements. Check page 37 the third dot point of the syllabus. Also I might add in case its your first time reading the syllabus if you just want to know about the content you will learn then just look at pages 32, 36-44 for the year 11 syllabus content and pages 45, 49-58 for the year 12 syllabus content
 

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