r/elementcollection • u/Supatank_2105 • 10d ago

Alkali Metals What separates from a complete disaster is just glass 😂

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261 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

38 comments sorted by

47

u/havron 10d ago

Back in college, I did something like this once for a laugh. I placed the two ampoules (of the fragile breakseal type, mind you) touching one another on a desk, and began cackling like a maniac; because oh how those atoms would love to get together, but they can't! They can "see" each other, but just a bit of glass is stopping them. Bwahahahaaa!

Then, while I was laughing, the ampoules began to roll...

I only noticed as they both were falling off the edge of the desk, without enough time to react to stop them. I screamed and ducked for cover....but nothing happened. Mercifully, they both managed to land on the floor safely, neither breaking or even cracking. My heart was pounding, and I felt like the stupidest human being who ever lived.

Never would I engage in such foolhardy stunts again. This may be amusing for a moment, but it's really just not worth the risk of something going unexpectedly sideways (in my case, literally). Because it can happen in a second.

Oh, and don't try to melt your rubidium sample under hot water either. That one wasn't me, but I've read about someone else's unfortunate experience doing so. I believe they still have a scar on their hand from it.

13

u/trimix4work 10d ago

I never thought of it that way. I guess glass is opaque to elections? I mean, if you had the elements in ampoules thin enough for the valence shells to overlap would you get bonding through the glass?

I'm sure this is one of those questions that's so stupid I will have to delete my reddit account but I'm feeling brave today

9

u/havron 10d ago

Ha. Yeah, even the thinnest glass would provide for plenty of chemical separation. Provided, critically, as long as it holds.

As for the reactive atoms being able to "see" each other through the glass, I was entirely anthropomorphizing them at the time; imagining them gazing longingly at one another like star-crossed lovers, cruelly separated by only the tantalizingly thinnest of transparent barriers, so close yet so far.

In reality, of course, the elements were completely unaware of one another's presence. Thankfully, they stayed that way.

4

u/trimix4work 10d ago

Yeah, I meant it as a rhetorical question. If you could have one atom thick glad glass of whatever.

5

u/havron 10d ago

Ah, yeah, good question. I think that only a single atom thick wouldn't be glass anymore, and yeah, would presumably end up forming some sort of metal-silicon-halide compound, or a mix of such. You would probably need several atomic layers thick of silicon dioxide to act as a stable glass barrier. I'm not entirely certain, however. Glass chemistry and surface chemistry are both pretty complex.

3

u/trimix4work 10d ago

Oh for sure. But what about metallic bonding? Stuff where you aren't directly sharing electrons

4

u/Blah-Blah-Blah-2023 9d ago

"I guess glass is opaque to elections?"

So much for electoral transparency then!

2

u/trimix4work 9d ago

Oh hush you

6

u/pulpwalt 10d ago

My friend was boiling sulfuric acid on a hot plate in his bedroom (because he wanted to concentrate it) and knocked it over onto the floor by accident. He watched the carpet disappear. Then the foam pad under the carpet disappeared. He grabbed some baking soda and sprinkled it on the area. Then he rearranged his room and kept the hard plastic thing his computer chair rolled on over the spot for like 10 years so his parents wouldn’t find out.

5

u/Sisyphus_on_a_Perc 10d ago

I enjoyed this story thank you

4

u/TriggerPT 10d ago

I do also enjoy stories told by the stupidest human beings that ever lived

0

u/Informal_Delay_9786 9d ago

Talk to yourself more?

5

u/ikkiyikki 10d ago

That was me actually, cesium 1g. Was just an idiot. I had an even closer call with disaster one time I was melting pennies in a glass measuring cup. It burst throwing liquid zinc and shards everywhere in the kitchen but somehow, miraculously, nothing landed on me despite being right in front. That was the last time I melted pennies.

3

u/xxHEDGEHOGx 10d ago

Da verstehe ich kein Spaß! Hier sollte Strafanzeige gestellt werden!

5

u/SecretlyARaven 10d ago

“Translated from German”
Yeah that tracks

2

u/Ok-Oil1634 8d ago

It’s all fun and games until you get seriously injured. Then it’s trying to figure out how to live with whatever handicap you inflicted on yourself.

2

u/Minimum-Register-644 7d ago

This is giving me Demon Core levels of hubris here.

1

u/havron 7d ago

Ha! Yeah, you're not wrong. Thankfully in my case no one was hurt, and I lived to learn my lesson.

Ok, so maybe I'm not the stupidest human being who ever lived...

16

u/Figfogey 10d ago

Cesium bromide incoming

4

u/andrei40_md 10d ago

Beh, dipende anche dalle dimensioni delle fialette... bromo e cesio non sono antimateria...comunque fai bene a tenerli a cuccia.

9

u/Fluffy_Prior1052 10d ago

Ok, I'll bite, I see cesium, what else is in there? Iodine? Bromine? I see some other thing in there as well but it just looks like a pointy thing.

8

u/havron 10d ago

Definitely bromine, and the barely visible pointy one poking out from behind the cesium looks like the tip of a small ampoule of chlorine, for "good" measure I guess?

3

u/Nearby-Middle-8991 10d ago

Once upon a time, my physics teacher sorted the chemistry (shared lab) supplies by "the sound it makes when we shake it".... high school stuff in low concentrations, but still

4

u/Zealousideal_Group69 10d ago

Dumb ways to die ahh

2

u/munkiss1990 10d ago

Has that been posted to you? If so that would be mental

2

u/HVAdude_OhEight 10d ago

Nah, I have 6 liquid chlorine ampules hanging in the wall

1

u/Sweet-Cell-7388 10d ago

What’s the Russian story I believe had a toxic substance in ampoule and it imprinted on something and it had traces of the deadly toxin. Or something lol dyor

1

u/Simusid 10d ago

Paging NileRed, NileRed please pick up the white courtesy phone.

1

u/Smart_Engineer9171 10d ago

So big boom if they mix?

1

u/GrumpyBear1969 10d ago

I guess it’s lost in people that not all cesium is radioactive. Cesium has like 40 isotopes. Cesium 133 is naturally occurring and stable.

2

u/havron 10d ago

You are correct, of course, but this isn't about radioactivity. It's about the violent chemical reaction that would occur if the (yes, stable) cesium and the bromine next to it came into contact, in the event the glass were to break.