• vithigar@lemmy.ca
      10·
      14 hours ago

      I’d argue that Li should be red and Hg should be yellow.

      Elemental mercury in liquid form is fairly safe. It needs to get into your blood in order to be a problem, and even if some does stick to your tongue and get swallowed the digestive absorption is extremely low.

  • Signtist@lemm.eeEnglish
    42·
    19 hours ago

    I think some of those purple ones should instead be labeled “If you can find a way to get it to stick around long enough for you to lick, you’ll win a posthumous Nobel prize.”

  • 48954246@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    13 hours ago

    Oh but your telling me if I put Na and Cl together in just the right way it’s fine to lick it.

    • WaterWaiver@aussie.zoneEnglish
      4·
      12 hours ago

      The fun thing about Pb is it’s relatively safe in pure form. Unfortunately the oxides that appear on its surface are water soluble and love entering our bodies.

      Just looked this up, apparently I’m completely wrong. Maybe I was thinking about lipid compatibility? Not sure now.

      • wyrmroot@programming.dev
        2·
        12 hours ago

        Hmm. Maybe you were thinking about elemental mercury vs methyl mercury? That’s a case where the danger (at least through ingestion) depends greatly on the format.

        • WaterWaiver@aussie.zoneEnglish
          1·
          11 hours ago

          I swear that I read that white lead oxide is water soluble, thus happily sticks to your fingers and then gets on your food. I must be misremembering.

          Maybe it was something about the solid lead object turning into an (oxide) powder that can then be easily ported as tiny particles on greasy hands? Hearsay science and safety information from me today :)

  • SoulWager@lemmy.ml
    4·
    14 hours ago

    Um, why is tungsten green?

    Really there’s a lot of green there that I wouldn’t lick.

  • MakingWork@lemmy.ca
    9·
    21 hours ago

    Please reconsider? What does that mean? It’s not red. But maybe no? So like it’s ok but it will probably suck? But still doable in a bad game of truth or dare? It’s not yellow.

    Is it worse than yellow? Is it worse than red? If it’s worse than red, then why is it so polite?

    • Capt. Wolf@lemmy.world
      15·
      20 hours ago

      My guess would be that this is in terms of reactivity and toxicity and the likelyhood that these factors will kill you. Yellow things like lead or lithium won’t necessarily kill you, but they will poison you pretty good. Red elements like potassium and sodium would potentially blow your tongue off due to their reactivity. At the least, they’d likely give you gnarly, severe chemical burns. Licking red stuff like mercury or arsenic will most likely kill you. Purple stuff is either extremely rare, unstable, and/or extremely radioactive. Licking it would cost a fortune in lost materials and likely straight up kill you from radiation poisoning or some sort of other reaction. For instance, francium, you’re definitely dead from radiation poisoning. So

      “please reconsider” = you’re going to die painfully and horribly.

      “you really shouldn’t” = it’s probably going to kill you, and, if you do survive, you probably wouldn’t want to be alive long after anyway.

      “maybe not a good idea” = it might not kill you, but you’re gonna be pretty sick.

    • HurlingDurling@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      19 hours ago

      Red means that you could but shouldn’t, purple means reconsider or die.

      In any case I definitely don’t want to lick #33

  • Zerush@lemmy.ml
    1·
    17 hours ago

    You can lick almost everything (except your ellbow), but not all several times.