Let's do a thought experiment, You have on ounce of pure mercury. You drop that all at one time three feet onto a hard and non-absorbent surface. What will happen?
I put this prompt into Perplexity and received the result I expected. Scan quickly to the end, and see my concluding thoughts, please.
Spoiler . . . There is no single AI. AI is like dropped mercury. We cannot embrace or resist all of AI.
In this thought experiment, dropping an ounce of pure mercury from a height of three feet onto a hard, non-absorbent surface would result in an interesting and potentially hazardous scenario.
Here's what would likely happen:
Initial Impact
Upon impact, the mercury would immediately splatter into numerous smaller droplets[1]. This is due to mercury's unique properties:
- High surface tension (480.3 × 10−5 N/cm)
- Low viscosity (1.685 mPa·s at 0°C)
- High density (13.5956 g/cm3 at 0°C)
These properties cause the liquid metal to break apart into smaller spheres rather than spreading out like water[1][4].
Droplet Behavior
The resulting droplets would exhibit the following characteristics:
- **Spherical shape**: Due to its high surface tension, each droplet would form a nearly perfect sphere[1].
- **Rapid movement**: The droplets would scatter quickly across the surface, potentially covering a significant area[3].
- **Coalescence**: Some droplets might recombine upon contact, forming larger spheres[1].
Safety Concerns
It's important to emphasize that mercury is extremely dangerous, and even a small amount can generate enough fumes to contaminate the air in a room[3]. This thought experiment underscores the importance of handling mercury with extreme caution and only in controlled laboratory settings.
Citations:
[1] https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-1-4614-1533-6_307
[2] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9450922/
[3] https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/mercury
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrargyrum
[5] https://byjus.com/chemistry/mercury/
[6] https://www.britannica.com/science/mercury-chemical-element