|Gallium metal is silver-white and melts at approximately body
temperature (Wikipedia image).| |Atomic Number:||31||Atomic
Radius:||187 pm (Van der Waals)| |Atomic Symbol:||Ga||Melting
Point:||29.76 °C| |Atomic Weight:||69.72||Boiling Point:||2204
°C| |Electron Configuration:||[Ar]4s23d104p1||Oxidation
States:||3| From the Latin word Gallia, France; also from Latin,
gallus, a translation of "Lecoq," a cock. Predicted and
described by Mendeleev as ekaaluminum, and discovered
spectroscopically by Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1875, who in the
same year obtained the free metal by electrolysis of a solution
of the hydroxide in KOH. Gallium is often found as a trace
element in diaspore, sphalerite, germanite, bauxite, and coal.
Some flue dusts from burning coal have been shown to contain as
much 1.5 percent gallium. It is one of four metals -- mercury,
cesium, and rubidium -- which can be liquid near room
temperature and, thus, can be used in high-temperature
thermometers. It has one of the longest liquid ranges of any