How easy life can be very great

[Jim North]

Sounds like a fun activity that the whole family can enjoy . . . once, at least.

[Xmung]

what REALLY would happen if you dumped a block of sodium in a kiddie pool of water

you see rc - this is kind of why it's a shame your comic only features a floating ball of gas... the above description makes for a much more entertaining lesson on the explosive fun to be had with alkali metals!
(not that i'm dissin' your comic or anything 8) )

[BrownEyedCat]

My chem teacher told us a similar story, but in it, the teacher used a sink and only burned off his eyebrows.

So . . . not very similar, then.

[Rkolter]

what REALLY would happen if you dumped a block of sodium in a kiddie pool of water

you see rc - this is kind of why it's a shame your comic only features a floating ball of gas... the above description makes for a much more entertaining lesson on the explosive fun to be had with alkali metals!
(not that i'm dissin' your comic or anything 8) )

Writing has alway come easy to me. On the other hand, drawing is like eating a dry roast-beef sandwich and following it up by chugging a nice, big glass of sand (excuse the theft, Mr. Bob).

Besides, I think that scene would put me over the edge from PG to R.

[Orion]

just goes to show how untrustworthy juinor high school teachers are when they want to scare you into being careful. Your description is a lot more visually impressive than what I envisioned, I remember thinking the metal would penetrate the skin and continue to react inside of their skin, faces, and organs which is still pretty damn nasty.

I figured it was probably exaggeratted, since I knew most of that about sodiums properties (except maybe the raw power that might be generated) and how its normally stored.


heres something my dad told me happened at his school, maybe you can tell me how likely/possible it would be. His teacher was demonstrating the seperation of hydrogen and oxygen from water. the gases were seperated into two parts of the apparatus and his teacher did a demonstration of putting a match or lighter into the oxygen and showing how the flame flared up (presumbably there was not enough oxygen for thsi to be dangerous) however some hydrogen apparently entered the mix causing an impressive but mostly harmless explosion, although the teacher was a little burned and cut by the glass.

[Rkolter]

heres something my dad told me happened at his school, maybe you can tell me how likely/possible it would be. His teacher was demonstrating the seperation of hydrogen and oxygen from water. the gases were seperated into two parts of the apparatus and his teacher did a demonstration of putting a match or lighter into the oxygen and showing how the flame flared up (presumbably there was not enough oxygen for thsi to be dangerous) however some hydrogen apparently entered the mix causing an impressive but mostly harmless explosion, although the teacher was a little burned and cut by the glass.

Water hydrolosis; that's reasonable - my teacher did the same thing.

The question is in how the apparatus is set up. It's possible, presuming that the tube of oxygen and the tube of hydrogen are somehow linked so that you have to pick up both and risk upending the hydrogen tube to do the demonstration.

Personally, if I had to pick up a tube of hydrogen and upend it to show kids that fire flares up in pure oxygen, I'd probably not do the experiment. Safety and all that. Usually, these rigs have a central tube of water, and two other seperate tubes - one for oxygen, one for hydrogen. You'd just pick up one tube, leaving the other attached to the rig. Since hydrogen is lighter than water, there's no real chance of any "leaking out" through the top (unless the tube is cracked).

Side note - my professor first put the burning stick into the hydrogen to show that without oxygen, hydrogen will not burn. Pretty impressive stuff - everyone (including me) ducked when he did it. But I was younger then.

[[AlmightyPyro]]

AH HA! I got it!

*quickly retreaves his Memo-pad and begins to write*

First I need to buy one hundred thousand chinese midgets. Then I force them to work in endless mines and factories, and live their lives as theives untill they bring me every ounce of Potasium in the whole world! Then I need to fly in a space ship high above the Earth, in orbit! After that I'll tell the worlds leaders to make me Dictator of the world or else! And then when they say no I'll throw all the Potasium in the world into the ocean, and blow up the world!!!! Then I'll go and repopulate another planet! and be its dictator!!

here's the equation: K14,000,000,000,000,000 + Earth = Destruction of the world!

*Puts the Memo-pad away while grinning evilly*

[IVstudios]

heres something my dad told me happened at his school, maybe you can tell me how likely/possible it would be. His teacher was demonstrating the seperation of hydrogen and oxygen from water. the gases were seperated into two parts of the apparatus and his teacher did a demonstration of putting a match or lighter into the oxygen and showing how the flame flared up (presumbably there was not enough oxygen for thsi to be dangerous) however some hydrogen apparently entered the mix causing an impressive but mostly harmless explosion, although the teacher was a little burned and cut by the glass.

We got do do something cool like this in high school to. We separated water molecules into oxygen and Hydrogen with electricity, colected it in a small test tube, and put a match in it! The explosions were small, but cool. I loved watching the people jump when they had to do it.

[Isukiyomi]

AH HA! I got it!

*quickly retreaves his Memo-pad and begins to write*

First I need to buy one hundred thousand chinese midgets. Then I force them to work in endless mines and factories, and live their lives as theives untill they bring me every ounce of Potasium in the whole world! Then I need to fly in a space ship high above the Earth, in orbit! After that I'll tell the worlds leaders to make me Dictator of the world or else! And then when they say no I'll throw all the Potasium in the world into the ocean, and blow up the world!!!! Then I'll go and repopulate another planet! and be its dictator!!

here's the equation: K14,000,000,000,000,000 + Earth = Destruction of the world!

*Puts the Memo-pad away while grinning evilly*

so if you blow up the world, how do you plan to repopulate well, anywhere? Biologically speaking, you're on your own

[IVstudios]

I guess he could use the midgets, if he's into that.

[Sippan]

Children gather around a baby pool of water; their teacher has a one gallon jar of oil. At the bottom of the jar are several hundred small pieces of cesium. The teacher unscrews the jar and dumps the contents into the pool.

The first sign of trouble occurs in the first two seconds as the cesium hits the water and the oil begins to disperse. The water starts to bubble. The cesium pieces, well scattered, begin to melt. Unfortunately, just as the teacher realizes his mistake, it's too late.

The first flash of heat melts the pool and simultaneously vaporizes most of the water. The detonation causes third degree burns to all the children and the teacher, and the light scars their retinas, blinding them for life. Immediately thereafter the shockwave knocks the children down and spatters them with bits of the molten pool.

On the ground, some of the remaining cesium still burns and sputters, spraying the area with droplets of metal, each of which in turn begin to sputter in the humidity of the afternoon. Small fires are lit within ten to twenty feet of the blackened, charred circle that was once the pool. Children start to cry, realizing they're injured, even if the pain hasn't yet had time to reach their brain.

The real tragedy is yet to come. The initial explosion sprayed metal hundreds of feet into the air. The metal, now in millions of tiny red-hot droplets, cascades through the rising mushroom cloud of steam, and begins to fall like hell-spawned rain, igniting fires everywhere it touches, and covering the children and teachers in burning metal.

Screaming, the exposed try to wipe off the metal; that only spreads it further, causing additional heating. The water in their scarred flesh begins to boil, feeding the metal. Bones begin to crack from the heat. Some children die from burns that make their way to vital organs, or from massive blood loss and shock. Others survive, hideously scarred and deformed for life. The teacher dies - the result of his last action - leaning over the pool to see what all the fuss was about.

I love you.

[McDuffies]

what REALLY would happen if you dumped a block of sodium in a kiddie pool of water

you see rc - this is kind of why it's a shame your comic only features a floating ball of gas... the above description makes for a much more entertaining lesson on the explosive fun to be had with alkali metals!
(not that i'm dissin' your comic or anything 8) )

I suggest he puts that story as a flashback into RC and we of keenspace illustrate the flashback (I dib scenes where molten whatever is hitting children).

[Rkolter]

what REALLY would happen if you dumped a block of sodium in a kiddie pool of water

you see rc - this is kind of why it's a shame your comic only features a floating ball of gas... the above description makes for a much more entertaining lesson on the explosive fun to be had with alkali metals!
(not that i'm dissin' your comic or anything 8) )

I suggest he puts that story as a flashback into RC and we of keenspace illustrate the flashback (I dib scenes where molten whatever is hitting children).

That's a hell of a compliment to my writing that you'd be willing to illustrate it. Thanks.

If anyone seriously wants to do this, lemme know and I'll flesh out the story. Maybe turn it into some kind of event, and post the results on RC under the title, "Why alkali metals are not fun to play with" or some such thing.

[Xmung]

start writing!

[Rkolter]

OK. A bit of editing, and we have:

Children gather around a baby pool of water; their teacher has a one-gallon jar of oil. At the bottom of the jar are several hundred small pieces of cesium, each about the size of a pencil eraser. The teacher unscrews the jar and unceremoniously dumps the contents into the pool.

The first sign of trouble occurs two seconds as the cesium hits the water, as the oil begins to disperse. The water starts to boil. The cesium pieces, well scattered, begin to melt. The teacher leans over the pool to see how the reaction is proceeding. Unfortunately, just as the teacher realizes his mistake, it's too late.

Within the space of a single second, the reaction ramps up from boiling water to an explosion that shatters the pool into ten thousand pieces. Those pieces are sent hurling the students in a moving wall, like razors fired from a cannon. The children are saved the sight of their impending doom because the light from the explosion has already burned out their retinas. The shockwave sends the pool shards through the bodies, leaving exit wounds. The force is strong enough to pick up the closest students and knock them flat in a daisy pattern about the charred ground that had at one time been the pool.

The heat from the reaction has by this time already vaporized the water in the pool, and rolls out behind the shockwave, caught between it and the concussion from the explosion. As the heat hits the children, it crisps all exposed flesh and ignites their clothing. The concussion saves them from hearing the screams of their fallen classmates by blowing out their eardrums and shattering the tiny bones in their ears.

At ground zero, some of the remaining cesium still burns and sputters, spraying the area with droplets of metal, each of which in turn begin to sputter in the humidity of the afternoon. Small fires are lit within ten to twenty feet of the initial explosion. At this point, the remaining standing children collapse. As the survivors start to cry both from pain and fear, the real tragedy falls.

The initial explosion sprayed liquid cesium hundreds of feet into the air. The metal, now in millions of tiny red-hot droplets, cascades through the rising mushroom cloud of steam, and begins to fall like hell-spawned rain, igniting fires everywhere it touches, and covering everyone in a fine mist of burning metal.

Screaming, the exposed who remain capable of movement furiously try to wipe off the metal; that only spreads it further, causing additional heating. The water in their scarred flesh begins to boil, feeding the metal. Bones begin to crack from the heat. Some children die from burns that make their way to vital organs; others die from massive trauma, blood loss, and shock. A few survive as hideously scarred and deformed creatures that can barely be recognized, even by their own parents. The teacher dies - the result of his last action - leaning over the pool to see what all the fuss was about.

[Warren]

*does the cesium dance*

[LAGtheNoggin]

Ah, memories *happy sigh*

Also note you can get roughly the same effect with Incendiary Grenades ^_^

[War]

The running! The screaming! The pain and agony!

'tis sheer brilliance!

[Rkolter]

The running! The screaming! The pain and agony!

'tis sheer brilliance!

Aw quit it, you'll make me blush.

[McDuffies]

start writing!

Yeah, seconded. But divide that script into sections so that we can equally share them.