ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Mercury relay

A mercury relay is a special kind of switch that uses a liquid metal called mercury to help turn things on and off. It's like a little helper that turns a lightbulb or a motor on and off when it needs to.

The relay has two main parts – the mercury switch and the coil. Inside the switch there are two metal contacts that need to make a connection for electricity to flow through, but they don't touch each other until the switch needs to turn on.

When a small amount of electricity is sent through the coil, the magnetic field it creates pulls the little ball of liquid mercury to one side of the switch, making the two metal contacts touch each other. This completes the circuit and allows electricity to flow through the switch to power a device.

When the electricity to the coil is turned off, the magnetic field goes away and the mercury ball moves back to its original position, separating the contacts and breaking the circuit, turning off the device.

So, the mercury relay is like a special switch that uses a liquid metal helper to turn things on and off, and it works by creating a magnetic field to move the helper from one side of the switch to the other.