How To Make Galinstan

less than 1m read

·Nov 10, 2024

Let's make some Gallon Stan. Unlike Mercury, Gallon Stan is not toxic, and it's a liquid at room temperature. Unlike Gallium, which is solid up until about 30 Celsius, you have to hold this for a while before it starts getting drippy. No, no, no, you deserve a metal that is almost always wet.

I'm going to need this magnifying sheet. It's a bit floppy, but I can just whip out my tools and build a sturdy frame. The lens can focus the sun's energy enough to easily melt 10. That's great because, by weight, Gallon Stan is 10% tin, 20% indium— the only element you can safely chew like bubblegum— and 70% gallium.

To speed things up, I used my lens to melt the metals down. They began to amalgamate; their respective atoms all get in each other's way, frustrating crystallization. So instead of melting at 232, 156, or 30, Gallon Stan melts at just 11.

I froze some Gallium and some Gallon Stan in my freezer, and watch this! After just a few minutes, the Gallium was still solid, but the Gallon Stan was a nice shiny mirror soup.

Teach Elementary with Khanmigo

Sales and Marketing + How to Talk to Investors with Tyler Bosmeny and YC Partners (HtSaS 2014: 19)

View All

Work and power | Physics | Khan Academy

Earlier, roller coasters used to start from a height with a lot of gravitational potential energy, which then got converted into kinetic energy as the coaster went down. But what you’re seeing here is an example of something called a launched roller coast…

THE FED JUST FLIPPED THE MARKET | Major Changes Explained

What’s up guys, it’s Graham here. So, we gotta have a talk. As of a few hours ago, the Federal Reserve just raised their benchmark interest rates by another 75 basis points, which means we are officially sitting at the highest interest rates that we’ve se…

9 WAYS TO DESTROY YOUR ENEMY WITHOUT FIGHTING | STOICISM INSIGHTS

If you’ve ever felt like someone was against everything you said or did solely to attack you, there’s a story about fireflies being pursued. The firefly flew for a long time, attempting to escape, until he reached a dead end, nearly being caught. He asked…

The Simple Secret of Runway Digits

While waiting on a plane during taxi ‘till takeoff, looking out the window, you may have noticed the giant number numbering the runway, say eight, which implies seven others exist, at least, but this is a flight out of L.O.L. Airport, in Nevada’s desert o…

15 Things to Avoid During the Holidays

Hey there, relaxer. Wherever you’re watching this, you know, you’re probably celebrating some sort of holiday, whether you’re religious or not. It’s still a time when the year comes to an end. It’s a closing chapter for most people around the world. A tim…

Optimistic Nihilism

Human existence is scary and confusing. A few hundred thousand years ago, we became conscious and found ourselves in a strange place. It was filled with other beings. We could eat some; some could eat us. There was liquid stuff we could drink; things we c…

How To Make Galinstan

More Articles