Why are so few elements liquid at room temperature?

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Many elements are gas or solids at room temperature, but only mercury and bromine are liquid. Why?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Well, first off, you need more than temperature – you need pressure, too. The phase of a material depends on both.

It just so happens that humans live in a relatively high-pressure, relatively low-temperature environment, which tends to make things solid. Only pretty light molecules tend to be liquid or gaseous under human conditions.

Put another way: we, and all other life, live near the range of temperatures and pressures of liquid water. Liquid water is much lighter than most molecules or elements. So you’d expect most things to be solid. (Actually, water is so light you’d expect it to be a gas, but the strong bonds between water molecules help keep it liquid. Water’s weird.)

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