• Question: can you see through mercury if you got a thin enough layer of it?

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      Asked by TheToppler 283 to Angus, Catherine, Jenni, Melissa, Waqar on 17 Jun 2016.
      • Photo: Catherine Ross

        Catherine Ross answered on 17 Jun 2016:

        I suspect you might be able to if it was v v v thin but Mercury is very dense

      • Photo: Angus Cook

        Angus Cook answered on 20 Jun 2016:

        Metals in general are really quite good at reflecting light, and the thicker the metal layer is the better it is at reflecting the light.
        I’d guess that you’d need to get really REALLY thin before you managed to pass light through a layer of mercury, maybe ~10-20 nm (that’s 1/1000000000th of a meter!, or about 100-200 atoms thick!).

      • Photo: Melissa Ladyman

        Melissa Ladyman answered on 21 Jun 2016:

        Great answer Angus, I can’t really add much more!

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