Mixing sodium with mercury

Correction: at 12:50 I said that pure nitrogen is denser than air, but that isn't true. The specific gravity of nitrogen vs dry air at STP is ~0.97, meaning that it should rise slightly, but the difference (0.97 vs 1) is so small that there isn't a very noticeable effect. When air is flushed out of a flask by nitrogen, it would take a while, but it should eventually mix with the air out of the flask.

For this video, I'll be making the sodium amalgam, which is commonly used in chemical reactions. It can also be used as a gateway to other amalgams, even some that are normally very hard to form. This is the first official video in my new amalgam series, where I try and combine as many different metals as possible with mercury.

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[loscheninmotion]

science man mixes poison shiny water with boom water

[autarchex]

Years ago my roommate and I played around with a material we nicknamed "Hell Metal." Not a mercury amalgam but an alloy of gallium and aluminum. We dissolved powdered aluminum in molten gallium into no more would go in, then removed the aluminum oxides dross. Result is a liquid alloy that is relatively stable in dry air, wets glass, makes great mirrors of all your glassware, and if not disturbed may remain liquid at room temperature for anywhere from hours to weeks before it solidifies. It tears apart water on contact to produce hydrogen, evolving a fair amount of heat - learned that the hard way when I tried washing some off a gloved hand and received a burn for my trouble. Handy reductive agent.

[madkirk]

"Why the hell would you want to mix explosives and poison?"
Me: *A M A L G A M A T I O N S*

[magrildz]

NileRed: "working with mercury is almost always a pain, requires waste management and special handling..."
Cody: "in this video we'll mix liquid mercury with Kool Aid and drink it!"

[StrikeWyvern]

"Bro just wash the sodium with water lol"
-Famous Last Words

[joelryan]

Me: Cant afford much
Nile: ah yes, let me feed gold to my pet puddle

[theshuman]

Gets mercury poisoning.
"This is not ideal"

[petersmythe]

"There was a thump, and all the sodium instantly disappeared."
Sodium in a nutshell lol.

[updownstate]

A poem about my father [who lived to 92, better living through chemistry]:
Willie was a chemist. Willie is no more,
For what he thought was H20 was H2S04.

[SenseiExploration]

This is the chemistry I always wanted to see. Weird YouTube recommendation has finally something good!

[a-blivvy-yus]

One of the best high school chemistry teachers I know of:
"OK students, today we're going to the school pool. Why? Because there's an important lesson for us to learn there. We are not allowed, as teachers, to allow students to handle sodium, because it's very dangerous. We are also not allowed to put sodium into water in the classroom. Today, *WE ARE NOT IN THE CLASSROOM* because of this rule."
A year later:
"OK students, today we're going to the school pool. Why? Because there's an important lesson for us to learn there. We are not allowed, as teachers, to allow students to handle sodium, because it's very dangerous. We are also not allowed to put raw sodium into water under any circumstances. So instead, I am going to carefully lay out this sheet of paper so it's floating on the surface of the water. And now, I will drop this piece of sodium onto the paper. Remember, I'm not dropping the sodium into water, because that would be breaking the rules and rules are important to follow."

[gseholm]

I dont understand why people dislike videos like this. There is LITERALLY NOTHING to dislike.

[maximilianraab]

I've just gotta say that I have absolutely nothing to do with chemistry. I am not a chemistry student nor do I have anything to do with chemistry in my job, yet I really enjoy all of your videos as they are super interesting and extremely high quality. You are so good at making interesting and educational videos that you attract people that have barely anything to do with the matters you cover in your videos. I'll have to thank you for all your effort you put into your videos, it's really obvious that you value high quality content and take great effort to produce your videos! Cheers!

[ericmacfadden]

Imagine having science channels like this on YouTube, and then showcasing “melting lipstick” as a science experiment representing all science channels.

[The_Youtube_Winner]

9:51 “but anyway, now that all that safety has talks done, i can go back to playing with the amalgam.” lol

[alicexylanthrax]

“So to get things started, I added a few drops of acid.” Me, at every party

[linuspauly]

"Smashing it a BIT" *destroys flask completely*

[WitchidWitchid]

I used to dabble in Chemistry related experiments in my younger years (back in the 1970's). I remember ordering some sodium. It came crated in a wooden box filled with sand. The sodium was in an airtight can embedded in this sand. When I got done with my experiments I stored the unused portion of the sodium in a jar filled with kerosene such that the sodium was completely covered by the kerosene. Now the funny part is over time I noticed the remaining sodium was dwindling. In fact, every time I looked at the jar there was less and less sodium. Turns out my younger brother was "borrowing" some of my sodium every now and then to put on a little "fireworks show" for his friends. He would cut a piece of sodium and toss it into a puddle and watch the "fireworks" LOL.

P.S. I should add that the reason I stored the leftover sodium in kerosene was to keep it from reacting with water and oxygen in the atmosphere.

[pinball]

Nile, you fuel all of my nerd needs. I love your channel and recommend it to all.

[kingofglory]

I actually like chemistry unlike most of my family and I definitely LOVE this channel because it shows the extremely fun (and dangerous) aspects of chemistry