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Chunk of Sodium thrown into a pond
Sodium metal reacts rapidly with water to form a colourless solution of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and hydrogen gas (H2). The resulting solution is basic because of the dissolved hydroxide. The reaction is exothermic. During the reaction, the sodium metal may well become so hot that it catches fire and burns with a characteristic orange colour.
Posted 10 years ago by Dafyne in category: crazy
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causeby - 10 years ago [ Reply ]
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It should have started at 0:47 and ended at 0:58, and it still would have been lame.

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HoraceSPatoot - 10 years ago [ Reply ]
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Poor explanation of the chemistry in the header. The first part was right: sodium plus water yields sodium hydroxide plus hydrogen. The second part was nonsense ("burn" is not a name for a chemical reaction). The explosion comes from hydrogen gas reacting with atmospheric oxygen. Sodium does emit yellow light when excited (the "D" line), which is why most things change the color of a flame to yellow.

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