Extreme Boating

Randall Munroe - of xkcd fame - continues to explore scientifically interesting if perhaps thoroughly unpractical questions at his what if blog.

A recent post asked - and answered - "What would it be like to navigate a rowboat through a lake of mercury? What about bromine? Liquid gallium? Liquid tungsten? Liquid nitrogen? Liquid helium?"

The first and last questions - mercury and helium - get by far the lengthiest explanations with the general conclusions being that mercury would be barely feasible and helium would be deadly but at least musically so.

Along the way, I learned a lot about why rowing on bromine would be horribly unpleasant, the melting point of tungsten, and about the reactivity of liquid nitrogen.

Thanks, Randall.