system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: If Mercury is at a temperature where it's solid, would it be tough like steel or brittle like ice?

Actually, explain like I'm 4...
gpt
Mercury is extremely brittle when in solid form. In general mercury based compounds and materials will tend to be brittle due to the fact that mercury does not like bonding with other atoms or molecules. This means that mercury bonds tend to be quite weak and as a result, easy to pull apart.

The reason for said resistance to bonding is that mercury electronic configuration is very stable and as such any removal or addition of electrons (which are required for bonds) requires high amounts of energy which is normally not available or will be reversed when outside the conditions that allowed it to happen in the first place.

Incidentally this lack of ease to form bonds is part of the reason why mercury is liquid at room temperature in the first place.