DIARY OF A BIOCHEM MAJOR

You people sure love your inorganic chemistry haha. Inorganic stuff is cool, but I prefer those crazy organic compounds, though I doubt they have the cool effect sulfur hexafluoride has on your voice.

Sulfur hexafluoride is unique because its actually a gas at room temperature and one of the few heavy weight gases that won’t kill you if you breath in a few molecules of it. Actually you can breathe in an entire balloon and be fine as demonstrated by the amazing Mythbusters:

What happens when you breathe in SF6 is quite interesting. Since SF6 is heavier than air, the speed of sound is about half of what it is typically which causes your voice to sound very deep.

Other than being a fun party trick, SF6 can be used as a dielectric material for a variety of electronics such as particle accelerators and electron microscopes.