[Quartersawn]

Hi folks,

I have browsed this forum for a while and have loved the information I have found. I am just an early adult who enjoys all types of knowledge.

I have been on the hunt for the densest thing I can reasonably acquire. For some reason really dense things fascinate me. I want something that, when picked up, makes me amazed. Preferably in the following guidelines. It has to fit in one hand, meaning probably equal to or less than the size of a softball. It does not necessarily need to be round. It cannot be overly poisonous as I will want to handle it. Cheaper the better but I want as dense as I can get.

Anyone have any ideas? I don't really expect anyone to have a link to exactly what I am asking for since I have looked for quite a while, but I would love a good conversation about dense materials and the possibilities relating to my interest!

Quartersawn

[Borek]

Look for anything made of tungsten.

For example: http://www.tungstenspheres.com/inventory.html

[Quartersawn]

That is a really cool site. I didn't look much into tungsten,  I know that my wedding band is tungsten carbide and is significantly heavier than gold bands. Thanks for the link!

[Enthalpy]

A visual impression of the elements' density there
http://www.webelements.com/periodicity/density/
the density of a compound uses to lie between the components' density. The exceptions are uncommon and differ only little: Ni-Ti, LiH, invar...

Tungsten is the affordable dense element, to which you may add uranium.