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My high school chemistry teacher lamented that he had fond memories of taking a lump of a metal (sodium, potassium) and watching the fireworks with his students
by cbhl 6y ago
My high school chemistry teacher lamented that he had fond memories of taking a lump of a metal (sodium, potassium) and watching the fireworks with his students when they threw it in a pond out back. These days, he has to settle for taking a small sliver and dropping it into a beaker of water behind a safety shield.
- mnw21cam 6y agoMy school teacher chucked a golf-ball-size lump of sodium into the school swimming pool, then declared a wish to see the face of the guy who tests the pH of the pool the next morning.
- TomJansen 6y agoHa! My chemistry teacher did the same! Killed all the fish in the pond one time, or so he said.
- phyzome 6y agoA big chunk can jump back out at you, along the original angle of incidence. And it can really fuck up the pond's chemistry. So I endorse not throwing big chunks of alkali metal in ponds. Putting a small lump in a bucket outdoors using a rope-activated rig sounds pretty reasonable, though.
- mirimir 6y agoSodium in hot concentrated nitric acid is very impressive. As you say, outside with a string-activated rig. Short term, it does kill vegetation. But long term, it's fertilizer.