In building some gyroscopic navigation equipment for a company, we used a very heavy clear liquid to suspend a spinning ball in this liquid. The liquid must have weighed over 100lbs in a 5 gallon can. What kind of liquid would it be? What is the heaviest known non-metallic liquid?

Edited November 28, 20169 yr by fidlersgrn

Metrification-Stations!

 

100lbs = 45.4 kilograms

5 gallons (presume US) = 19000 cm^3 = 0.019 m^3

 

Mass density of your liquid = 45.4/0.019 = 2389 kg.m^-3

 

Carbon Tet and Percholethylene are around the 1600 kg.m^-3 so need denser than that (btw mercury is 13500 kg.m^-3). The seriously concentrated acids are a little higher at the 1800 kg.m^-3 mark. To get past 2000 kg.m^-3 the only thing I can see is liquid bromine at 3100 kg.m^-3

 

And just after finding that I found wikipedia's list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_liquid

By far the least toxic of those liquids is the sodium polytungstate solution.

Thanks Imatfaal and John. It was probably Carbon Tet.

Gryoscopic fluid suspension is usually accomplished with a ferrofluid

 

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Wr6l42rEizUC&pg=PA649&lpg=PA649&dq=gyroscopic+suspension+fluid&source=bl&ots=xoDrd0_oW-&sig=jFqQ4v7LKrU8uqpCytdwK__Voxw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiBmJrm9s3QAhWrAMAKHU2pDUAQ6AEIMzAG#v=onepage&q=gyroscopic%20suspension%20fluid&f=false

 

Typical densities range from 850 kg/m³ for oil based ferrolfluids to 1400 kg/m³ for water based ones.

 

http://faculty.washington.edu/finlayso/ferrofluid/Prop/all.html

 

 

 

The liquid must have weighed over 100lbs in a 5 gallon can.

 

Was the 100lbs a guess or an actual weighing and did this include the can and was that Imperial or US Gallons and was the volume a guess as well?

 

I ask this because of these comparisons.

 

1 UK gallon of water weighs 10 lbs and a US gallon about 8.4 lbs.

 

By comparison with imatfaal's figures

 

Earth and rock is about 2000 - 2200 kg/m³

 

Concrete is 2200 - 2400 kg/m³

Edited November 29, 20169 yr by studiot

Depending on how long ago you're talking, I doubt it was carbon tet. That stuff is next to impossible to get a hold of these days.

STUDIOT; This was about 25 years ago, and I remember lifting the 5 gallon (US measure) metal can full of this liquid and it felt like the weight of a 100 lb bag of cement. I was just curious as to what type of liquid it could be. I don't remember them telling me what it was back then. To me, as a layman, I figured all clear liquids should weigh about the same. I appreciate your patience with me, I know very little about chemistry.

HYPERVALENT-IODINE, Thanks for coming back on this. The incident I referred to was 25 years ago. I have since learned that it is a toxic chemical and harmful to the environment.