Alkali Metals - Brainiac

Whether you've left school or you're still at school, you can appreciate the sheer fun and mayhem that chemistry can be. There's so much to it. Bunsen burns. Mixing chemicals. Very nice. Now, you may have been allowed to make very small amounts of lithium with water. You may, if with a responsible adult, have mixed H2O with sodium. And you may under very strict scientific control have witnessed potassium mixed with water. But the odds are, if you have, it will only ever have been on one of those rubbish science videos. There you go, make present. These next two are the dogs nuts of the periodic table. They are if you like the king and queen of alkali metals. Mix these babies with water, stand well back. And watch them mayhem. And that's just what we're going to do. Mister tickle, bring on the rubidium. Here it is. Is that it? Well, it might not look like much Richard, but it's a highly reactive metal. It's sealed in this glass tube under argon atmosphere conditions, just for safety. Right, so what's going to happen when you drop that in the water? Well, imagine if you will, letting off a hand grenade in a bathtub. Right? I'm off. Have that? Okay. Good luck. Okay, tickle. Drop the rubidium in the water. Stand back, everybody, this one's going to be bad. At two grams of rubidium will only react when our specially designed vile dissolves in the water, which gives John a few crucial seconds to get into our safety zone. Okay. Wow. That is more like it only on brainiac. Do you get that kind of? Science. But I believe we can go one better. There is one more alkali metal we can legally use. Yes, we should seize him the emperor of alkali metals, particularly nasty could go off at any time. And that's it. Oh yes. I like it already. Now what's that going to do? When it hits the water. Imagine a depth charge in a bathtub. I lived here. Good luck. Thank you. Okay, John, go for it. Morning morning morning, extreme danger. Clear the area. As our cesium sinks in the water, the rapid generation of hydrogen gas should produce quite an explosion. And it does. Mag. Magnificent. And I think that concludes today's experiment. There is a should say one more even more reactive metal. Frankie. But for some reason, they wouldn't let us have any of that. There you go. Today's lesson. Never mixed alkaline metals with water.