The Powder Toy

MERC doesn't make sense

  • Powderplayer789     25th May Member 0 Permalink

    I saw that everything (including radioactive elements) floated on top of MERC. And I thought "wait, POLO, URAN, and PLUT aren't supposed to float on MERC because they have a higher atomic number than MERC!. So, I posted this thread.

  • EnganK     25th May Member 1 Permalink
    TPT is not realistic and doesn't have to be realistic
  • NF     25th May Member 0 Permalink

    @EnganK (View Post)

     I was about to say this. It is realistic to a degree, albeit not really realistic. So half and half, it does follow physics, just loosely. 

  • Jerehmia     26th May Member 0 Permalink

    @Powderplayer789 (View Post)

     What makes one thing float on top of another is less (relative) density (aka specific gravity), not a lower atomic number.

    The relative density of mercury at room temperature is 13.5 g/cm³ while that of polonium is 9.2 g/cm³ (alpha polonium) or 9.4 g/cm³ (beta polonium) so polonium actually floats on mercury. Uranium (19.1 g/cm³) and plutonium (19.9 g/cm³) are both denser than mercury so they don´t float on it.

  • jacob1     26th May Developer 0 Permalink
    In TPT, generally all powders are heavier than all liquids. The only exception is SAWD. It isn't very realistic, but the way powder "floats" on liquids isn't realistic looking either.
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