A friend of mine was talking about a chemistry lab he was in (back in high school) where the teacher took a small piece of solid material and dropped it into a sink full of water and it blew all the water out of the sink.
He said he and a friend went back into the classroom and stole the rest of the stuff and threw it into a lake and it blew up so bad all the fish floated up dead and fire trucks came.
Was it magnesium? He said that sounds about right but high school was a few years ago; we're 30 now.
Anyway what we want to do is get some more of the stuff for our water-balloon launcher and bomb the fuck out of the local Christmas Flotilla. (We live at the beach and everyone takes their boats out at night with happy little lights and parades around the waterway--look how rich we are! Yeah, motherfuckers) Help, anyone? Oh yeah, and where can we get the stuff? Thanx for the input...

It was most likely Sodium. Magnesium doesn't react with water like that.

All 1A elements react with water (excepting H) A periodic table of the elements

As for where to get it, you can try ordering it from www.freyscientific.com at a cost of $43.10 for 1/8 of a pound, or $59.85 for 3/8 of a pound plus shipping.

Good fucking luck getting them to ship it to a kid though.

as stated before just about all the 1a series reacts pritty violently to water. a guy at my school tried to steal a big chunk of potassium by sticking it in his pocket. little did the dumb ass know that it draws moisture from the air, thats why its kept in oil. it ended up blowing up in his pocket. dont order this shit its to expensive, if u can steal it. if not it just buy one of them 3 person sling shots, find a port O let, and fill the balloons up with shit water and fire. its alot less destructive and alot more ego damaging to be drenched in human excriment.

He's not a kid, he's 30, Fireman

-GreaterEvil

Thanks, he said Potassium sounds about right. Money isn't really a problem here, we'd consider a few hundred dollars for the right effect =D And no man, I'm 30, actually 31. Thanx again.

Definatly sodium. Just remeber: SODIUM CHLORIDE aka TABLE SALT! Evil because it is a dangerous gas and an element that burns upon contact with water. Thats why they trasport it in oil. Dangerous as they are, when together they are perfectly safe... Scary.

quote:

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Originally posted by SpaceFalcon2001:
Definatly sodium. Just remeber: [b]SODIUM CHLORIDE aka TABLE SALT! Evil because it is a dangerous gas and an element that burns upon contact with water. Thats why they trasport it in oil. Dangerous as they are, when together they are perfectly safe... Scary.[/B]

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Yeah could some one explian that.

The only elements that could acuactualy blow out the water would be cecsium and francium.

CTR

"The only elements that could acuactualy blow out the water would be cecsium and francium."

im not sure what u mean there, but the 1a series burns in water and explodes. and from what i remember, u never find any of the sodiums or potassiums in nature alone, they are always grouped aka sodium chloride or salt.

Ceasium also reacts violently with water, much more violently than sodium or potassium. While potassium will boil and flame in the water, ceasium will shatter a glass lab container, even if it's open at the top. I've never seen francium and water, but if it follows the trends of the periodic table, it is even more reactive.

You guys rock! thanks so much. Now searching for ways to purchase Cesium and Potassium...

Perhaps a lesson in the chemistry of how it works would help.

2 Na + H2O = Na2O + H2 + heat

The Na2O disolves into the body of water.
The H2 disperses into the air. The heat of the reaction is enough to ignite it. That is where the explosion comes from. The same formula holds true for all 1A elements. The metal itself does not explode, the explosion is a secondary effect caused by too much heat.

i may be wrong its been a while but isnt the 1a series poisonus to the touch?

The 1A series (alkali metals) will not poison you, they will just burn your hands away because of the moisture in them.....

Francium is the most reactive, however IIRC it's not naturally occurring so there's almost no way you could get hold of it. Caesium is also very reactive and more available.

Sodium chloride will not explode in water- it contains Na+ which is what is FORMED from the reaction from sodium and water. Not sure exactly what the guy who posted about salt was on about though.

Also, Francium is radioactive and exposure would probably kill you.

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Originally posted by The Eternal Andy:
Sodium chloride will not explode in water- it contains Na+ which is what is FORMED from the reaction from sodium and water. Not sure exactly what the guy who posted about salt was on about though.

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Just reposting how sodium is th reactant he was mentioning, what the whole NaCl (sodium chloride) was about is that Na by itself is dangerous, as is Cl. But TOGETHER (NaCl) it is safe.

lol, people are so funny.

yeah, the farther down the 1A column, or the (say it with me now) alkali metals, you go, the more violently that element will react with water. if you can get caesium, great, but be extremely careful. and the most stable isotope of francium has a halflife of 21 minutes, so good luck ordering that from anywhere.

I know it doesn't, but why wouldn't the Na ions react with the water once they dissociated? Is it becuase they are ions and are more stable?

Just a note about this reaction: All of the alkali earth metals and and alkali metals (first two groups) react with water to form the hydroxide and one half mole of dihydrogen(or one mole in the case of Calcium etc)

Thus: 2Na + 2H2O --> 2NaOH + H2 or
Ca + 2H2O --> Ca(OH)2 + H2

quote:

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Originally posted by P@yback.
we want to do is get some more of the stuff for our water-balloon launcher and bomb the fuck out of the local Christmas Flotilla.

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wouldnt work. the heat of the reation will bust the ballon.

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Originally posted by Prometheus.
2 Na + H2O = Na2O + H2 + heat

The Na2O disolves into the body of water.
The H2 disperses into the air. The heat of the reaction is enough to ignite it. That is where the explosion comes from. The same formula holds true for all 1A elements. The metal itself does not explode, the explosion is a secondary effect caused by too much heat.

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exactly, the whole sodium+water explosion thing only occurs if the H2 gas doesnt escape before being ignited by the heat the reaction produces. therefore an will explosion occur in a tall narrow container but not in a short wide one.
i have conducted this experiment when i took chem in high school. universal indicator was added to the water so you could see the Na2O in the water, left a trail of pink as the little chunk of sodium was zipping around in the water, quite fun to watch.

PSC MA C ZITL H CMSGP

Potassium
Sodium
Calcium

Magnesium
Aluminium

Carbon

Zinc
Iron
Tin
Lead

Hydrogen

Copper
Mercury
Silver
Gold

(metal reactivity series, highest to lowest)


as i know, group I metals have violent reaction with water...

especially caesium and the francium(sp)
they have EXPLOSIVE reaction with COLD
water.....

quote:

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Originally posted by SpaceFalcon2001:
Just reposting how sodium is th reactant he was mentioning, what the whole NaCl (sodium chloride) was about is that Na by itself is dangerous, as is Cl. But TOGETHER (NaCl) it is safe.

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Oh right, that's what you meant. I getcha now :-)

You want to use a caesium/potassium + water explosion to blow a baloon at boats, is that right?

There are easier ways of achieving this methinks

Okay, to clarify, here is I want to do. All the rich people(and there are many here)get together and illuminate their yachts the weekend before Xmas and sail them down the Intracoastal waterway. It's a celebration of themselves and how grand they are. Very posh.

Now, what we want to do is get a lot of this stuff and launch it in large quantities into the waterway all around the boats. For a big boom/panic effect.

Of course we aren't going to put the shit *IN* a water balloon first. The water balloon launcher provides a means to deploy said material from a safe distance. Besides, we've used water balloons and coconuts(launched from balloon launcher)before to punch holes in the sails of big sailboats. From FAR FAR away. We are good at this. Getting caught is not the big idea.

So, that said, if anyone has a better idea for mayhem, please, I am very open to suggestions. Thanx.

Get a few 5-gallon jugs (used for the office water thingy) and fill it up with gasoline. Take them (make them in the water, easier to get to the 'launch' point) and set a remote trigger device to the top, making sure its watertight. When the boats start coming down, trigger the remote, and watch the rich people die. You could always, if your too lazy to make a remote trigger, or don't wish to be in trigger range (tells you on the box, the box of the RC car you made the trigger from.). You could get some touch-sensitive explosive (like nitro glycerin) and hope that a boat hits one, then the rest will go up.

Here is a text drawing that would be of little help in real life, but will help you somehow:

--------------------~~~~~---OOO/
-------------------~~~~~~--ooo~~~~~~~~~~%%%%%%%%%
-------------------~~~~~~--OOO\


P.S. Anyone that didn't figure this out, this was a joke (a bad one), killing is only good if they have lots of oil in their country, or your father failed to capture your target in the gulf war.


EDIT: Forgot, a well placed small tactical thermonuclear device (in the XX kiloton range) will do wonders to a bunch of rich peoples boats: go http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22How+to+damage+rich+people%27s+boats%2C+and+maybe+kill+them%22 here for plans

[This message has been edited by Guswut (edited 12-19-2002).]

maybe calcium carbide? http://www.totse.com/en/bad_ideas/ka_fucking_boom/165683.html
a pic of it http://www.unitednuclear.com/chem.htm
scroll down to calcium carbide.

im just guessing cuz it said if you flushed it down the toilet it would shoot water out

Calcium carbide reacts with water to release acetylene, a flammable gas. It was once used in miner's helmets for lighting. Very dangerous stuff if you aren't careful.

lol my dad used to use that to dynamite moles. Drop carbide down one hole and pour water on it. Then you stand on the hole and get your mate to flick matches into a nearby tunnel. Does more damage to yer lawn than a mole ever could. Great fun for all the family.

Simply flinging that stuff into water will not cause an explosion. It just kinda fizzes acetalyne gas.

why not try either fireworks, or some pop bottle explosive (perhaps using said carbide, or sodium hydroxide solid and aluminium foil)

Yeah, I'm in chemistry right now and it works with the alkali metals (all of the elements in group one, excluding Hydrogen). We just did the experiment in class. We tried with both Sodium and Potassium and it exploded into the air when they came into contact with water. They are both highly reactive (Sodium started giving off this residue when it came in contact with the air) and as you go farther down the group the more it will explode. Im thinking if you came across some sodium or potassium that'd be all u would need to do some damage at a swimming hole or public pool. (but would the sodium react with the chlorine and harmlessly make salt?)

To some small degree it would, but when disolved in water Na and Cl form into their ions,Na+ and Cl-, not a salt. Besides, there wouldn't be nearly a high enough concentration of Cl to impede the Na+H20 reaction.

No you won't get francium as stated before. You'll also have a hell of a time getting cesium unless you have connections to a chem supply place. Calcium carbide needs a flame to ignite. I happened to pick up some sodium from an undisclosed location, and that's some fun shit in water. You technically could Na from NaOH but 1) it's not so easy 2) the yeilds would suck and 3) it's dangerous.

What are cats made up of? They hate water.

If you want a large quantity of sodium, then get a lot of salt (Sodium Chloride) and use the method of electrolosis (if you don't know how to do it then read a book). You should find that all the sodium collects on the cathode, so you can scrape it off there and use it (the fact that it will be magneticly attracted to the cathode will prevent it from reacting with the water (hopefully), but for that reason KEEP the electricity on until you have got all the sodium off the cathode!)

However when you react sodium with water, you tend to find that the sodium curls up in a small ball and fizzes around on the surface of the water until it is gone, and thus you will probably want something more reactive then that. Pottasium would do, and you should find that if you get a pottasium compound, you may well be able to use electrolosis to extract it, especially if it's a salt like Pottasium Chloride.

Sorry if my chemistry ain't upto scratch, i'm more into Physics

NaOH will be a better thing to electrolisize(sp).

If you want cesium its in photo electric cells.

CTR