// MATTER · ELEMENT 31 / 118atoms.no/elements
Ga31
Gallium
Ga·Z 31·Post-Transition Metal·69.72·⭕ 11A · F♯ Minor
▸ The reading
interpretive · artGallium melts at 29.76 °C — it pools in a warm palm like something deciding to trust you — then stays liquid past two thousand degrees, one of the widest liquid ranges known. As gallium arsenide and nitride it lights the LED age. A metal soft to the hand and vast in span: the gentlest surface over the longest reach.
The science below is cited as science; the symbolic layers are flagged as interactive art.
⚜ Periodic Frequency
11AF♯ Minor
a seat struck in brass — testimony, not prediction
the seat has its own room on ⭕ THE OVAL TABLE — tap the code
▸ The lenses
▸ Discovery
Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran — found in zinc-blende spectra, exactly where Mendeleev had predicted 'eka-aluminum' · France · 1875
▸ Stellar origin
s-process in AGB starsBuilt by slow neutron capture in the helium-burning shells of dying low-mass stars, then ejected through stellar winds.
▸ Reactivity
Melts in your hand (29.76 °C) but stays liquid up to 2400 °CWidest liquid range of any element. Gallium puddles on a warm palm yet behaves like a metal that won't boil.
▸ Applications
- Gallium arsenide (GaAs) semiconductors
- LED lighting (especially blue/white)
- Solar cell photovoltaics
- Thermometers (replacement for mercury)
▸ Curiosity
Melts in your hand at 29.76 °C — a metal that pools on warm skin, then stays liquid all the way past 2000 °C.
▸ Related readings
a resonance drawn between readings — not a claim that they share an origin.
Group 13AlAluminiumInIndium
Period 4ZnZincGeGermanium
p-blockGeGermaniumAsArsenic
Adjacent ZZnZincGeGermanium