whether you have left school or
at school you can appreciate
the sheer fun mayhem that chemistry
can be there is so much to it
Bunsen Burners mixing chemicals
very nice
now you have been allowed to mix 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 that if you have
it will only ever have been on one of
those rubbish science videos
there you go mate a present
these next 2 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 the mayhem
and that is just what we are going to do
Mr Tickle bring on the Rubidium
here it is
is that it
well it might not look like much Richard
but it is a highly reactive metal
it is 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 the bathtub
right-o I am off have that
good luck
OK Tickle
drop the Rubidium in the water
stand back everybody
this one is going to be bad
at 2 gms 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
yes
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 legal use
yes Richard caesium the emperor of alkali metals
particularly nasty could go of at any time
and that is it
oh yes
brilliant I like it already
now what is that going to do
when it hits the water
imagine a death charge
in a bath tub
fair enough mate
I'll leave it to you good luck
thank you
ok John go for it
warning warning warning extreme danger
clear the area
as our caesium sinks in the water
the rapid generation of hydrogen gas should
produce quite an explosion
and it does
magnificent
and I think that concludes today's experiment
there is a should say one more even more reactive metal
francium but for some reason they wouldn't
lets have any of that
still today's lesson
never mix alkali metals with water