If you remember high school chemistry class at all, you might remember what happens when you drop potassium and sodium into water: It creates a big flashing, sparking explosion and remains a classic ...

For decades, science enthusiasts have delighted at the famously energetic way sodium and potassium explode on contact with water. Researchers in Europe now show that the long-accepted explanation for ...

We always think that water is the perfect way to quench fires and to cool down metals, but that’s not always true, because water doesn’t deal so well with all the elements. When alkali metals like ...

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. An instructor and two children pour three cups of powder into a bin of red liquid. Suddenly — ...

The apparatus below is used to react calcium with water and collect the gas. This would not be used with sodium or potassium as they float and the reaction is too vigorous.