Transition metal · element 80
Mercury
The only metal that's liquid. Hard to pin down.
Only 1.3% of people are Mercury. (estimated)
If you're Mercury
You move, you shift, you slip through fingers. Fascinating, a little toxic in large doses, and completely unlike anything else on the table.
Mercury is liquid at room temperature and so dense that a cannonball would float on it.
How to get along with Mercury
Do
- Enjoy the shifting; you won't pin it down.
- Keep the dose low and the fascination high.
- Give them room to move.
Don't
- Don't try to hold them in your hand.
- Don't spill them; it takes forever to clean up.
When it goes wrong: They scatter into a hundred beads. Gather slowly; don't chase.
Atomic profile
Every element is placed on six personality dimensions derived from its chemistry. Your answers are placed on the same six, and the closest element wins. How the scoring works
- Reactivity
- 3
- Sociability
- 4
- Stability
- 5
- Energy
- 2
- Rarity
- 5
- Warmth
- 4
Mercury in literature
- The Cheshire Cat — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll (1865)
- Mephistopheles — Faust, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1808)
- Becky Sharp — Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray (1848)
Characters from public-domain works, chosen for the same traits. Company, not a verdict.
Closest personalities
The elements whose profiles sit nearest to Mercury's. If you got Mercury, one of these was probably your runner-up.
Other transition metals
ScScandiumTiTitaniumVVanadiumCrChromiumMnManganeseFeIronCoCobaltNiNickelCuCopperZnZincYYttriumZrZirconiumNbNiobiumMoMolybdenumTcTechnetiumRuRutheniumRhRhodiumPdPalladiumAgSilverCdCadmiumHfHafniumTaTantalumWTungstenReRheniumOsOsmiumIrIridiumPtPlatinumAuGoldRfRutherfordiumDbDubniumSgSeaborgiumBhBohriumHsHassiumMtMeitneriumDsDarmstadtiumRgRoentgeniumCnCopernicium