[vmelkon]

I have always wondered about this one. How have the boiling points of all the metallic elements been determined?
Example, Platinum is at 4530 C.
Throw in metalloids too in the list such as carbon and boron.
Did somebody visually observe them bubbling? It would be difficult but possible to do.
Did they make a special container (sealed up) and put a pressure gage to see if the pressure would suddenly shoot up?

Why is this information not readily available?

[enahs]

Seeing is how different yet repeatable sources list different boiling points for Platinum, as your example, I am not sure if it has been empirically measured; or measured accurately at least.

[Arkcon]

You know, I never thought about it.  I always casually stated, to people learning science, that all (most) substances behave like water, they have a solid, liquid, and a gas phase, all depending on temperature, and yes, as hard as it is to melt copper or table salt, it is possible to boil them -- as hard as that is to visualize.  But how do they really do that, on the surface of the Earth?  Never really thought about it.  So one quick Google later:

http://www.physicsforums.com/archive/index.php/t-63308.html

And here's some people pondering the boiling point of steel.  Some of their conclusions are a little bit off -- as a solid solution, colligative properties should apply, and depress the boiling point -- but, anyway, there are, apparently theoretical physics calculations that will hive you the temperature.  And I'm guessing, once you have a theoretical temperature to shoot for, you can get a tiny sample, in a refractory retort of some sort, and get it to that temperature ( in an inert atmosphere, most likely) and maybe detect the vapor by some photometric method.

But yeah, as poetic as it sounds, a bubbling, boiling pot of liquid copper, yeah, I don't think anyone's seen that.  And if someone on these boards has, well, just substitute tungsten, or tantalum, if necessicary,