FARK.com: (6957035) Problem: You have 10 tons of unwanted sodium to dispose of. Solution: Awesome

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		Problem: You have 10 tons of unwanted sodium to dispose of. Solution: Awesome (blogs.discovermagazine.com)		29
		More: Cool, scoop

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ghare

2012-02-22 04:52:42 PM

We used to have dozens of 55 gal drums full of sodium ingots at the lab. Good times.

/ether too

EnviroDude

2012-02-22 04:56:32 PM

Make Sodium Hydroxide and film the results?

downstairs

2012-02-22 05:05:37 PM

Fake. I just put salt in water when making dinner last night, and nothing exploded.

markie_farkie

2012-02-22 05:17:27 PM

I also call fake.

Notice how the film cuts away from the barrel rolling into the ice-covered lake, and shows asplosion after asplosion from a different angle.

That footage is from a camera-equipped endoscope showing a Taco Bell diner's colon several hours after eating.

violentsalvation

2012-02-22 05:40:32 PM

I wonder about the environmental impact on that lake.

downstairs

2012-02-22 06:01:36 PM

violentsalvation: I wonder about the environmental impact on that lake.

Well, we didn't care about stuff as much like that back in the day... but would sodium exploding leave any byproduct at all? Wouldn't it all just burn up?

BKITU

2012-02-22 06:38:12 PM

downstairs: violentsalvation: I wonder about the environmental impact on that lake.

Well, we didn't care about stuff as much like that back in the day... but would sodium exploding leave any byproduct at all? Wouldn't it all just burn up?

FTFA: Water will happily accept that electron, but at a cost: the reaction creates sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and hydrogen gas (H2).

...

Oh, and all that surplus WWII sodium? While that would destroy the ecology of a lake, in this case it was already a heavily alkaline lake with no fish in it. While I wouldn't say this was a great thing to do, at least they thought to minimize the impact.

GAT_00

2012-02-22 06:45:19 PM

BKITU: downstairs: violentsalvation: I wonder about the environmental impact on that lake.

Well, we didn't care about stuff as much like that back in the day... but would sodium exploding leave any byproduct at all? Wouldn't it all just burn up?

FTFA: Water will happily accept that electron, but at a cost: the reaction creates sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and hydrogen gas (H2).

...

Oh, and all that surplus WWII sodium? While that would destroy the ecology of a lake, in this case it was already a heavily alkaline lake with no fish in it. While I wouldn't say this was a great thing to do, at least they thought to minimize the impact.

Yeah, I had the same thought. Honestly, I'm surprised someone actually thought of that back then.

Gordian Cipher

2012-02-22 06:46:58 PM

I remember in high school chemistry class, we saw a video where someone went down the left side of the periodic table and added chunks of each element to water, lithium to cesium. Each reaction was more violent than the last, and the hands adding it to the water wore more and more protection each time, from bare hands to gloves to tongs to beaker-on-a-stick to a full-blown blast chamber with gloves in the walls you could use from the outside.

At the time I thought it would be awesome to grab a chunk of cold cesium and drop it in the middle of a lake. After seeing that video, I have now confirmed that doing so would indeed be awesome.

End CSB.

/somebody call the Mythbusters, they'll do it

downstairs

2012-02-22 06:53:39 PM

Gordian Cipher: I remember in high school chemistry class, we saw a video where someone went down the left side of the periodic table and added chunks of each element to water, lithium to cesium. Each reaction was more violent than the last, and the hands adding it to the water wore more and more protection each time, from bare hands to gloves to tongs to beaker-on-a-stick to a full-blown blast chamber with gloves in the walls you could use from the outside.

At the time I thought it would be awesome to grab a chunk of cold cesium and drop it in the middle of a lake. After seeing that video, I have now confirmed that doing so would indeed be awesome.

End CSB.

/somebody call the Mythbusters, they'll do it

This? (new window)

Gordian Cipher

2012-02-22 07:03:27 PM

downstairs: Gordian Cipher: I remember in high school chemistry class, we saw a video where someone went down the left side of the periodic table and added chunks of each element to water, lithium to cesium. Each reaction was more violent than the last, and the hands adding it to the water wore more and more protection each time, from bare hands to gloves to tongs to beaker-on-a-stick to a full-blown blast chamber with gloves in the walls you could use from the outside.

At the time I thought it would be awesome to grab a chunk of cold cesium and drop it in the middle of a lake. After seeing that video, I have now confirmed that doing so would indeed be awesome.

End CSB.

/somebody call the Mythbusters, they'll do it

This? (new window)

That's not the exact video, but that was the idea, yes. I love how the last one breaks the container the water is in.

Kazan

2012-02-22 07:34:04 PM

violentsalvation: I wonder about the environmental impact on that lake.

ruin it

downstairs: violentsalvation: I wonder about the environmental impact on that lake.

Well, we didn't care about stuff as much like that back in the day... but would sodium exploding leave any byproduct at all? Wouldn't it all just burn up?

actually you're wrong - they picked a heavily alkaline lake with no fish in it - aka a lake that wouldn't be affected by this.

Smeggy Smurf

2012-02-22 08:22:47 PM

violentsalvation: I wonder about the environmental impact on that lake.

About the same as the damage from washing a hippie

OnlyM3

2012-02-22 08:31:07 PM

downstairs

violentsalvation: I wonder about the environmental impact on that lake.

Well, we didn't care about stuff as much like that back in the day... but would sodium exploding leave any byproduct at all? Wouldn't it all just burn up?

Guess how we know you 2 didn't read the article

violentsalvation

2012-02-22 08:37:47 PM

OnlyM3: downstairs

violentsalvation: I wonder about the environmental impact on that lake.

Well, we didn't care about stuff as much like that back in the day... but would sodium exploding leave any byproduct at all? Wouldn't it all just burn up?
Guess how we know you 2 didn't read the article

When I clicked the link earlier it did not have the update below the video.

Tillmaster

2012-02-22 09:17:29 PM

I like his description of the experiment:

In high school we did something like this, though on a very small scale. Our teacher took a tiny bit of sodium and put it in a glass with water in it. Sodium is very light, and floats. It reacted with the water, but far more slowly than in this video, rolling around on the surface. As it did, it released the hydrogen, which is lighter than air (and also warm from the reaction) so it rose. The heat ignited it, and so as the ball of shiny metal sodium rolled around on the water's surface, a tiny blue vertical flame followed it around.

Tiny blue vertical flame? This is bloody sodium. Yellow, and far from tiny.

ng2810

2012-02-22 09:48:10 PM

Gordian Cipher: downstairs: Gordian Cipher: I remember in high school chemistry class, we saw a video where someone went down the left side of the periodic table and added chunks of each element to water, lithium to cesium. Each reaction was more violent than the last, and the hands adding it to the water wore more and more protection each time, from bare hands to gloves to tongs to beaker-on-a-stick to a full-blown blast chamber with gloves in the walls you could use from the outside.

At the time I thought it would be awesome to grab a chunk of cold cesium and drop it in the middle of a lake. After seeing that video, I have now confirmed that doing so would indeed be awesome.

End CSB.

/somebody call the Mythbusters, they'll do it

This? (new window)

That's not the exact video, but that was the idea, yes. I love how the last one breaks the container the water is in.

I think he meant THIS (new window) (new window)

But it cuts off before they blow up the bath tub with several sticks of sodium. :(

nicoffeine

2012-02-22 10:14:01 PM

I learned about this playing LA Noire.

Now, lemme tell you about Senator Vandenberg.

Ivo Shandor

2012-02-22 10:25:20 PM

Tillmaster: Tiny blue vertical flame? This is bloody sodium. Yellow, and far from tiny.

Yeah, blue/purple flame = potassium, not sodium.

See also: Theodore Gray's site (new window).

Leskay

2012-02-22 10:29:25 PM

During a year 9 *ahem* science class a teacher [a Christian Brother FWIW] lobbed a cube [maybe 2 inches, um cubed] of pure Sodium into a 10 litre bucket of water outside of one of the classrooms.

BOOM! It was pretty spectacular.

Windows were blown out.

10 tons. I just can't imagine.

i39.tinypic.com

Skleenar

2012-02-22 11:15:38 PM

BKITU: Oh, and all that surplus WWII sodium? While that would destroy the ecology of a lake, in this case it was already a heavily alkaline lake with no fish in it. While I wouldn't say this was a great thing to do, at least they thought to minimize the impact.

Ironically, fish have been introduced to the lake and are doing just fine, thank you.

timharrod

2012-02-22 11:22:13 PM

The Bad Astronomer

2012-02-22 11:30:46 PM

Tillmaster: I like his description of the experiment:

[...]

Tiny blue vertical flame? This is bloody sodium. Yellow, and far from tiny.

The sodium wasn't burning the hydrogen gas created in the reaction was. And it was a small piece, so the flame as maybe a centimeter high. It was a long time ago, but had it been a great bloody flame I'd remember.

evilmousse

2012-02-23 12:33:34 AM

well hell, if we're digging into video bins that dusty, i haven't seen the himalayan ninja goat video in a while

meat0918

2012-02-23 12:43:07 AM

Hmm, Lenore Lake claims to have fish these days. I wonder if they stock it?

Link (new window)

LewDux

2012-02-23 01:36:12 AM

Skleenar: BKITU: Oh, and all that surplus WWII sodium? While that would destroy the ecology of a lake, in this case it was already a heavily alkaline lake with no fish in it. While I wouldn't say this was a great thing to do, at least they thought to minimize the impact.

Ironically, fish have been introduced to the lake and are doing just fine, thank you.

1.bp.blogspot.com

whcrow

2012-02-23 01:42:19 AM

Today they have to cut down a tree for all the forms it takes to dispose of a single battery.

prjindigo

2012-02-23 05:10:27 AM

oh look

a repeat
of a repeat
of a repeat
of a reduced resolution repeat
of a stereo voice-over to mono repeat
of a repeat
of a video taken from a copy of a news reel
that was copied from a documentary
that was compiled from a news report
....

someone find a new farking video of a huge chunk of sodium burning in a lake, I'm tired of every god damned GED class finding this one

OnlyM3

2012-02-23 09:55:17 PM

violentsalvation [TotalFark] Smartest Funniest
2012-02-22 08:37:47 PM

OnlyM3: downstairs

violentsalvation: I wonder about the environmental impact on that lake.

Well, we didn't care about stuff as much like that back in the day... but would sodium exploding leave any byproduct at all? Wouldn't it all just burn up?
Guess how we know you 2 didn't read the article

When I clicked the link earlier it did not have the update below the video.

The narrator on the video states the same thing. So now it's not a case of not reading but not understanding English.

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