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High speed camera reveals why sodium explodes!

Thunderf00t · 484.4K views · 2015-01-30 · 24:59

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Overview

Thunderf00t presents high-speed camera footage of alkali metals such as sodium and NaK reacting with water. The footage shows that the explosion is not caused by hydrogen ignition, as the usual explanation says. It is a Coulomb explosion driven by electrons leaving the metal.

On Hacker News

HN links it as the accessible video explanation of the sodium-in-water research, and when Coulomb explosions or sodium batteries come up.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2015–2024

Topics

ChemistryEveryday physics & science demos
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sodiumcoulomb explosionhigh-speed camerawater reactions

What people said

gus_massa · 2023-10 · Recommendation

The article in Nature is about a paper by Thunderf00t (Phil Mason). He published the result in Nature Chemistry and also made a video [VIDEO] (the video has a nice balance, it's technical but not too technical).

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pdkl95 · 2015-09 · Recommendation

That's the video from before they published (which is still interesting). There is also a more recent video[1] (post-publication[2]) that covers how they got the data (which supports the coulombic explosion hypothesis). While it is mentioned at the end of the newer video, I highly recommend watching the 500fps footage[3] of a drop of NaK burning (just before it explodes) on the top of water. There is a striking color change as it starts to interact with the water, and right the NaK explodes... the metal turns completely transparent . [1] [VIDEO] [2] [LINK] [3] [LINK]

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gus_massa · 2024-07 · Reference

Don't dismiss the guy so easily. For example take a look at one of his papers [LINK] and the correspondong video [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Thunderf00t, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

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