• Question: What metal melts at the highest celsius ? :)

    Asked by tkhan to Aggelos, Andrew, Eileen, Naomi, Shane on 19 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Shane Bergin

      Shane Bergin answered on 19 Nov 2012:

      That would be Tungsten. it melts at 3410 celcius. there’s probably tungsten in the room you’re in right now – in the light bulb! Because it has such a high melting point, we can pass lots of electrical current through it (which heats it)to generate light before it melts away.

    • Photo: Eileen Diskin

      Eileen Diskin answered on 20 Nov 2012:

      Yep, its Tungsten, which is the 2nd hardest material (after diamonds). In fact, that’s why its called tungsten! In Norwegian, ‘tung’ means heavy, and ‘sten’ means stone. So its name literally means ‘heavy stone’!

    • Photo: Andrew Jackson

      Andrew Jackson answered on 20 Nov 2012:

      interesting, i didnt know this! at least, not without wikipedia 😉

    • Photo: Aggelos Zacharopoulos

      Aggelos Zacharopoulos answered on 22 Nov 2012:

      @tkhan,
      Tungsten at 3410 C so it found use in the incandescent light bulbs that were commonly used up until a couple of years ago. The filament (i.e. the part of the bulb that glows and generates the light) was made of tungsten. Now this type of light bulb technology is not in the market any more as it was producing little light compared to the amount of electricity that was using.

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