Everyone enjoys a good practical joke.
And the best practical joke I’ve ever seen is a neat trick which utilises be unique properties often a little-known metal. It’s called the disappearing spoon trick. Here’s how it works:
You make your friend a cup of tea. You give them the tea in a teacup on a saucer with a teaspoon, and you tell them that you don’t think you’ve stirred it properly. They pick up their teaspoon and start stirring the tea, and before their amazed eyes, the teaspoon disappears into the tea.
What happened?
As it happens, the teaspoon is made out of metal named gallium. Gallium has a melting point of about 38° C. Just as an aside – if anyone ever asks you how many metals are in a liquid form at room temperature, the best answer to give is to ask them what the temperature of the room is. If it’s below 38° C, the answer is one – Mercury. But if it’s above 38° C, the answer is two.
But back to the gallium. Since it melts at 38° C, when you put it in a hot cup of tea, it melts pretty quickly, astonishing your victim.
When the tea cools, the gallium solidifies on the bottom of the cup, and you can dig it out and do it all again.
As it happens, it’s available as a kit online – which includes a mould, and about 20 g of gallium – just enough to make a spoon.
Never heard of it happening, but it would just go through them like a dose of salts……
Hi Dr Chemical,
What happens if someone accidentally drinks the tea with the molten spoon in it?
E J