The Amazing Rusting Aluminum essays

The Amazing Rusting Aluminum essays In my Science article I was flipping through a Popular Science Magazine and came across an article about the quick rusting of Aluminum. In the article it talks about the structure of Aluminum and when it combines with the element Mercury it has no chance of defeat! I didnt know this, but it is highly forbidden to bring Mercury onboard an airplane. This is because if the Mercury were to get lose, it could and most likely would rust the whole plane before it had a chance to land. The plane would rust extremely fast, because airplanes are made out of Aluminum, which is Mercurys enemy. Also, in this article it tells you what happens to Aluminum when it breaks down. What happens to the Aluminum, begins with the first layer when it turns to dust. After the first layer is gone, the Mercury just keeps eating away layer after layer. When Aluminum is taken over by Mercury its kind of like a battle between two people. Between the two people, there might be a big muscular guy and a tiny thin guy, which one do you think is going to win? Well, I know that the big guy will win. In this case the Mercury is the strong big guy, while apposed to the Aluminum which is the little thin guy. In the article it shows a picture of an Aluminum beam, before and after. In the before picture, there is a nice silver beam of Aluminum and in the after picture, the nice silver beam from before has a brownish tint and is half dusted away. Above the pictures, continuing in the article it states that it only took the Aluminum beam to corrode in a couple hours and if it would have been an iron beam it would have taken a couple of years. This makes me think about my own life. I fly a lot, and I have never known about the toll Mercury can take on Aluminum. After I read this article, it definitely made me wonder about my flying days. If someone actually did bring mercury on a plane one time, and it got loose it could jeopardize my l...