Solved cryptogram
Mercury is liquid at room temperature, and dense enough that a lump of lead will float on it.
Chemistry Facts, sourced to Royal Society of Chemistry.
What it means
Lead is heavy by everyday standards and mercury is heavier still, so a lead weight dropped into a bowl of mercury bobs on the surface like a cork in water. The reason mercury is liquid at all is a relativistic effect: its electrons move fast enough that the outer shell contracts and the atoms bond to each other very weakly.
The claim comes from Royal Society of Chemistry, and the page it comes from was read on 2026-08-27 to confirm it still says this.
This is not the kind of claim that goes out of date, which is why it was set as a puzzle rather than a fact with a shelf life.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 74 letters over 20 different ones, graded medium.
- SourceRoyal Society of Chemistry
- CollectionChemistry Facts
- Difficultymedium
- Length74 letters, 20 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 77 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistryhard, 75 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 74 letters
- U.S. Geological Surveyhard, 73 letters
About as hard as this one
Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 68 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 79 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 70 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 77 letters