Metal objects. Collection of familiar objects made from transition metal elements. Clockwise from bottom: gold jack plugs, tungsten carbide drill bits, a mercury thermometer, Newton's balls coated in chromium, silver cutlery, a titanium camera body, copper piping, a vanadium spanner and a platinum ring. At centre is an iron magnet and nails made of steel, an alloy of iron and small amounts of carbon. Transition metal elements are generally hard, inert metals with high melting points. The exception is mercury, which is a liquid at room temperature. Several of the transition metals are strongly magnetic, such as iron, cobalt and nickel.