Thats the case with most things in chemistry that are claimed to be “dangerous”. Cutting potassium can be compared to driving 200km/h on the highway. It can be fine 99% of the time, but it only needs to go wrong once to seriously injure someone. Cody showed it could happen if you’re not very careful when handling potassium. As he said, if you accidentally scraped the table while cutting a large block of potassium, this could create a major fire.
It's really wierd. He flicked a nitroglycerin drop with a knife and hurt himself, but potassium is really dangerous according to same guy even though he can hardly ignite it. I'm sure he's right, but he's not presenting it convincingly.
@Mason Freydin You shouldn't sound so sure of something when you don't know anything about it. Hopefully you don't do this when you're talking in person too, that'd be really obnoxious.
This is a problem I face on a regular basis; just so much OLD potassium laying around my apartment that I just so badly wish to cut. Without this video, Cody, I wouldn’t be alive now to make this very VERY serious comment.
Cody, why is it you are getting strikes for actual educational videos, yet the king of random has a video about putting fire crackers in gasoline. It seems TH-cam is not keen on educational, but loves stupid.
I am not educated on how monetisation algorithm works, but I can tell you that you can learn alot more danger stuff from Cody's videos rather than those firecrackers in gasoline type of videos. I suspect that might be a reason for it, educational but too much to know
Don't be mislead, youtubes main purpose is entertainment, and people seek fun videos to watch here, hence why stupid and funny videos are more profitable. But also think from youtubes point of view: Why would you PICK between videos to monetise? The best profit for youtube would be to have 0 monetisation at all. What cody has experienced seems to be more of a misunderstanding rather than saying "We dont like your serious chemistry videos get out of here". As I said I don't know the algorithm and guidelines for monetisation, I just see it monetisation as a way to keep youtubes status at a higher level in understanding that there are all types of people on the internet - kids and grown ups
Anirudh Sivakumar Hello my ragtime gal Send me a kiss by wire Honey my hearts on fiiiire If you refuse me, honey you'll lose me Then you'll be left alone Oh baby, telephone And tell me I'm your maaaaaan! Lol... that one is classic Looney toons... from when cartoons were actually funny :)
HELLO MY BABY HELLO MY DARLING HELLO MY RAG TIME GALLLLLL!!!! Oh that's such a great comparison. "I SWEAR it's dangerous to cut old potassium! I swear it! It'll catch on fire! Here, let me smear it paper thin and vigorously rub it back and forth to build up friction heat to prove it!"
SinisterMinister avocado are pretty available, but not cheaper. But if you need less of them for a better yield it may end up being cheaper and less time consuming
Can’t believe that we are consuming such dangerous chemical on a daily basis. We should ban it already. It’s even in the rain. Also we also should ban C6H12O6 while we are at it, Highly dangerous stuff, it even creates a reaction in combination with certain microbes which destroys hydroxyapatite, really really bad stuff.
Aaron Harris It's just a selfie, some people use a picture of themselves with their new nose ring, I just use my toe after having half the nail removed.
This video perfectly encapsulates how unpredictable unstable chemical reactions can be. Even when you're prepared for the negative reactions, you can't rely on them. Something like this would make someone think they got lucky and drop their guard, then a second later they're in trouble.
Cody, I'll have to disappoint you there. This is not correct. What you saw was *not* due to the superoxide cover reacting with potassium. There's basically none of it on those samples. What you did there is forced a *reduction of cellulose with potassium* . Gypsum board is covered with heavy paper so when those two get in intimate contact, potassium is oxidized into KOH, and cellulose is reduced to carbon and other simple compounds (because it's not efficient mixing). You can see that carbon right there, it's obvious. That initially releases heat which will, if the sample is small enough, melt the metal and then mixing becomes much better so the reaction goes out of control, leading even to a metal fire if there's enough potassium left. For this reason it's incredibly dangerous to wipe potassium with paper towels. Even dabbing, if forceful, will trigger a reaction. One important thing is not to store alkali metals in mineral oil. Those oils became common because of the disinformation spreading online, initiated by eBay sellers who ship alkali metals like that to avoid the customs sniffing kerosene. Of course, shipping is one thing, but storage is something else. Mineral oils are tough to render completely inert. They contain various reducible groups in molecules. *Alkali metals are to be stored in purified kerosene* in airtight bottles filled almost to the top to exclude as much air as possible. It solves the problem of wiping, too, because kerosene is much easier to gently remove as it also evaporates, unlike mineral oil. Actual potassium rust crust is yellow and thick. Not only it reacts with potassium if pressed against it with a knife, but is also crystalline and can explode if crushed. There are organic peroxides inside. Accidents with potassium happen when someone ignorant of this danger grabs a bottle of old potassium and starts cutting the crust. Even if it doesn't explode (less ordered, tiny crystals are more stable than nice big ones), it releases lots of heat, fizzes, melts the surface and triggers a metal fire.
One of the reasons I like this channel is that you don't bullshit when a demo doesn't go exactly as planned. Kudos for not editing or screwing around to make it more dramatic.
It is said that gold can be physically pounded to just an atom or two in thickness. I'd like to see that. Then its used as gold leaf to usually be applied to wood like a picture/door frame. Another idea for a small video: I've noticed when I cook on the gas stovetop that water reacts kind of interestingly. If I am heating up a pot and then turn the burner off suddenly the top reacts with a sort of gasp... like it is releasing a breathe and some steam comes of it. Why does it do this and how can I take advantage of it in my cooking?
If it gets much worse than that it can be dangerous just to open the bottle. I had a teaching job where the previous teacher had bought half a kilogram of the stuff back in the 70's and it was terrifyingly corroded. Honestly, I should have contacted the fire department regarding removal, but I just suited up and carefully carried it outside to dispose of it properly. It was one of those things where I knew exactly what could happen and was just happy that nothing did happen.
I have used potassium a lot during my own lab work (in organometallic chemistry research), and it always looks basically the same as your sample. The tiniest amount of oxygen or moisture will oxidise the surface, even under heavy mineral oils. You would be surprised at how much moisture the oil itself can absorb - we were always told "oil and water don't mix", which is true enough for the bulk liquids, but on the microscopic level, much less so. Take hexane as an example, one of the most non-polar solvents in existence, so how much water can that contain? Well, whenever we got new bottles of solvent for the lab, we would always press some fresh sodium wire directly into each bottle and leave it for a few days before using any or putting it into the solvent stills. We could judge how "wet" the solvents were by how much they fizzed and bubbled when the sodium wire went into them. As you might expect, the ether and THF were always wet. But surprisingly, the hexane was often noticeably and significantly worse. Even heavy oils like diesel fuel can absorb a fair amount of water - enough to require moisture separators for some applications. Anyway, I doubt you really had any significant amount of potassium superoxide on your samples, mainly because there was no yellow tinge to them. Potassium superoxide can form, but usually on potassium that has been exposed to much more oxygen, such as in a container that the oil has leaked out of, letting the chunks dry out. It tends to form fluffy yellow crystals, as a combination of potassium superoxide and potassium carbonate, the latter as a result of potassium hydroxide absorbing carbon dioxide from the surrounding air. A bit like when old alkaline batteries leak, and you get that fluffy white buildup of crystals as the potassium hydroxide electrolyte is slowly released. So what caused the fire then? Well, you were apparently cutting and scraping your potassium on top of a piece of "gypsum board", or what we call plasterboard in the UK. Gypsum alone is fairly inert stuff, but in gypsum board, it is sandwiched between two layers of unbleached card, made from paper pulp. This has a fair amount of moisture in it, so the potassium was probably reacting with that, plus of course the oxygen from the air. It doesn't take much water to make potassium spark up, and the paper layer has more than enough. Next time, try doing this with a plastic or glazed ceramic surface if you want a more reliable result.
Why do the potassium and sodium metals appear purple, especially compared to the knife? Are they actually that color, or is that just the lighting/camera?
Phonics says that's correct way of spelling "water", because with only one consonant between the two vowels the A should have a long "A" sound, and sound like "Waiter". so Phonics is to blame.
Joaquin, 'water' does have a long 'a'. But English is based upon a number of root languages, mainly from all over Europe, from Asia, and also some of the old native tongues of Great Britain. There are also a wide range of regional dialects and pronunciations, even in England. As a result, much of the language appears to have inconsistent rules, and that makes it quite hard for many foreigners (and even native speakers) to learn to speak and write fluently. My favourite inconsistently-pronounced group of letters is 'ough'. Look up words containing it, to see why.
And as you see, if I hit it with a Sledgehammer, it will... Oh, ok but if I hit it with this bunsen burner it will... Hm ok, but see, if i submerge it into lava it... Yes, finally. See, it could ignite even under normal laboratory conditions!
Cody posting this demonstrates he is a true scientist. He doesn't say "it WILL ignite" nor does he mislabel the video. This is why you SHOULDN'T cut it: Risk of fire. The potassium he had was old and much of it was oxidized: Imagine pure potassium.
You'd be surprised just how much potassium is in a Ton of bananas. At routine checks at shipping docks, large crates of bananas will often have enough ambient radioactive decay to show as hotspots when checked with a meter. The dock management do this to prevent the illegal transfer of unrefined nuclear material and or bomb ingredients.
Cool TH-cam tip: If you type "awesome" on your keyboard the TH-cam video progress bar will become AWESOME and become rainbow (You may have to type it fast)
Just remember if you are cutting it, do NOT then smash it, smear it, add more, put it in a heap, smear it again and then scrape it...It WILL make a little puff of fire and could potentially harm the top layer of your skin!!! Safety first!
I've seen potassium without visual oxidation go off after cutting. Watching you smashing it about without it going off was crazy!! Be safe and good job
We had two fires like that in my lab. In both cases, the potassium was immersed in hexane, which caught fire with it. The first time, someone used a fire extinguisher, which caused the beaker to tip over, spilling the burning hexane in the fumehood. That was a serious fire, and damaged the fumehood. The second time, the other guy just covered the beaker with some aluminium foil, and it stopped burning right away.
"let me show you what will happen" "no.. not that..." "this is what will happen" " no.. not that..." "ok, let's assume you smear it like peanut butter really hard and fast" "no... not that" "DAMN IT!!! JUST IGNITE ALREADY!!!!!"
Cody, still trying to teach us how to blow up our house but fail miserably. After the 13941th attempt, he finally manages to get some sparks and get striked by youtube. The sparks were too dangerous, they say.
That would be a interesting thing to have in a survival kit, little chunk of old potassium. When you need a fire just take a knife and smear it across a log.
He doesn't, he's learning just like anyone else, and then he shows us the cooler bits of what he learns. Learning this stuff takes work, and he deserves the credit for putting in the work.
You should have sacrificial blades for that, dont ruin the temper on a good SAK by burning K on it. Now realistically this was probably benign but the finish on those is nice too, but i guess you can buff that out. Still, sacrificial blades man, short lifespan, can made of anything harder than the material needed to be cut.
I could definitely see this happening, you smoke a joint, you're not paying attention, you go to make a potassium & table sammiche, start spreading & BAMM!!!
(This might sound rude but I promise it’s a compliment!) every night when I’m struggling to even get tired in the night I come to your TH-cam channel and watch long videos which successfully gets me to the point where I struggle to keep my eyes open. Your voice is just soooo calming! In the day obviously I love your videos but I come here to let your voice relax me
I remember a science lesson where I think my science teacher, Mr. Hawtin, was expecting the sodium to just fizzle & chase around the surface of the water bath. He dropped a chunk in and it sank & there was this huge, bass retort as the bottom of the glass tank blew out! Stunning stuff! That was in 1975 and it's still a vivid memory!
You could detect early heating before the smoke, boiling oil and fire by using a thermal imaging camera. These are very precise and can detect temperature changes of .1 degrees C.
This is the most Bob Ross video I have seen by someone other than Bob Ross, I was wondering when "happy little flames" were going to get a mention. I am also left wondering how many bananas worth of potassium were in that sample.
NDexis he specifically says if the variables were changed, like the we quantity could be disasterous. I find it awefully funny that people actually need to physically watch the disaster played out on a large scale to believe it.
Hey Cody! A funny story happened to me today that I knew I just had to tell. Today in my organic chemistry class my lab partner asked if I watched your channel. I asked why, and they told me I look a little like you and made them think of you because of a conversions about great science channels. Thanks for adding to the list of names I get called around campus. Also, happy to know there's a following here in WV.
I don't think the demonetization is the real concern since that just prevents ads from playing rather than killing the channel. The real problem is being flagged as an actual rule violation that results in account suspension. That's not even necessarily YT's doing (though it is their fault for giving people the power to do it), more likely it's flat earthers and jealous science snobs manually reporting him out of spite because they can't prove their own points.
There's a saying I've heard a few times. Peroxides kill chemists. I know you get a lot of flak for generally ignoring safety but I'm glad here at least you understood the dangers of things like potassium peroxide and superoxide and chose to test a small piece in isolation.
Literally nothing could have surprised me more than codyslab having TROUBLE starting a fire
Thank god, i was just about to cut up my old potassium
@ Its ok as long as you dont cut it
@ cut, not rip.
LOL... YEAH, HOT ANY OLD POTASSIUM METAL LAYING AROUND?🤷🏼♂️🤣😂
I can feel the sarcasm... Even 2 years later
Bananas man, they'll get you every time
Potassium trying to stop Cody from getting another strike, but Cody refuses to take it's advice
Well, you win the internet for today.
Pietro Tettamanti thanks 😂
lol :)
Lmao
Using chopsticks while gloved is possibly the single most impressive thing you’ve ever done.
In this video, Cody attempts to show us the dangers of potassium while simultaneously making potassium look very safe and hard to ignite!
Looks to be quite a bit safer than your average match head. ;)
Thats the case with most things in chemistry that are claimed to be “dangerous”.
Cutting potassium can be compared to driving 200km/h on the highway.
It can be fine 99% of the time, but it only needs to go wrong once to seriously injure someone.
Cody showed it could happen if you’re not very careful when handling potassium. As he said, if you accidentally scraped the table while cutting a large block of potassium, this could create a major fire.
It's really wierd. He flicked a nitroglycerin drop with a knife and hurt himself, but potassium is really dangerous according to same guy even though he can hardly ignite it. I'm sure he's right, but he's not presenting it convincingly.
I'mBored777 fucking obviously
I'mBored777 while making potato stue*
*Swiss Army Knife lifetime warranty representative's sweating intensifies*
This comment is underrated 😂
Can we cut ripe bananas? Now I’m scared
@Mason Freydin Actually there's potassium in the skin as well. Cody extracted it in another video.
No your can’t. It’s very dangerous
@Mason Freydin You shouldn't sound so sure of something when you don't know anything about it. Hopefully you don't do this when you're talking in person too, that'd be really obnoxious.
Interesting that on this 2 year old comment 2 comments are from a week ago and 2 (now 3) from 1 day ago.
@@kristyanne719 ahhh thats why the cops send me to deathrow when i cut old people. To keep us safe from fire.
I'll have to remember not to kneed potassium into a table then rub at it for a while.
Yes
This is a problem I face on a regular basis; just so much OLD potassium laying around my apartment that I just so badly wish to cut. Without this video, Cody, I wouldn’t be alive now to make this very VERY serious comment.
Don't worry about cutting it too much, it will be K.
Na it won't.
Mmm K.
K is potassium in the periodic table.
it is an oxide, so it is basely OK
NaH
*Demonetized*
too educational
Taken Too Seriously tru
Telling people how to be safe is a truly dangerous thing! I thinl TH-cam should delete his entire channel
Mantani Mantaniri Im surprised the extremist morons that are TH-cam corporate haven't done just that.
They are already striking some channels to death. Psyched Substance for example. He is just being robbed of his income within days.
Taken Too Seriously
Don't worry it's not contagious
An explosion?, This must be a tutorial to make a bomb, demonetization and strike incoming. - TH-cam 2018
Kazaki I think the video was meant to show how hard it is to make things ignite.
you've gone meta XD
More like how to not make a bomb lol
plus any viewers from the UK get locked up for 18 years
waofy Still didn't get locked up
Cody, why is it you are getting strikes for actual educational videos, yet the king of random has a video about putting fire crackers in gasoline. It seems TH-cam is not keen on educational, but loves stupid.
Apparently King of Random has 2 court charges because of explosives he used on his videos. I think TH-cam demonetized some of his videos too.
I am not educated on how monetisation algorithm works, but I can tell you that you can learn alot more danger stuff from Cody's videos rather than those firecrackers in gasoline type of videos. I suspect that might be a reason for it, educational but too much to know
Yes, YT favors stupid over educational and there even is a simple reason: Stupid brings in more money than educational
Don't be mislead, youtubes main purpose is entertainment, and people seek fun videos to watch here, hence why stupid and funny videos are more profitable. But also think from youtubes point of view: Why would you PICK between videos to monetise? The best profit for youtube would be to have 0 monetisation at all. What cody has experienced seems to be more of a misunderstanding rather than saying "We dont like your serious chemistry videos get out of here". As I said I don't know the algorithm and guidelines for monetisation, I just see it monetisation as a way to keep youtubes status at a higher level in understanding that there are all types of people on the internet - kids and grown ups
A random weeb Correct. He's facing felony explosive charges and could serve a few years in prison.
"This is very dangerous material, could catch fire at any moment, might explode"
Proceeds to scrape it off the blade with finger
*gloved finger. That's crazy levels of safety 'round these parts.
...and your knife slips for the 100th time, and you're lucky again. BUT THEN it slips for the 101st time, and suddenly, a spark!
Well, his was barely oxidized.
@@thewarmedic2330 yeah, still he makes a true claim😂😂
the same thing happens if you slip in an old banana on the street
Mikkel H damn
You beat me to it.
What about eating an old Brazil nut?
Especially when the banana is on fire.
Mikkel H lol
* Why You Shouldn't Spread Old Potassium Like Butter *
Why am I not allowed potassium toast
@@neilisbored2177 Next week on Cody's Lab...
Yum
Let’s use some of this Prussian Blue to go with our happy clouds.
It's like that frog in the loony tunes cartoon that wouldn't sing and dance when the man wanted it to.
Anirudh Sivakumar
Hello my ragtime gal
Send me a kiss by wire
Honey my hearts on fiiiire
If you refuse me, honey you'll lose me
Then you'll be left alone
Oh baby, telephone
And tell me I'm your maaaaaan!
Lol... that one is classic
Looney toons... from when cartoons were actually funny :)
Laird Cummings
Yeah! Can't belive you remember the name...
Any of you reprobates remember Beenie and Cecil?
JohnAudioTech I thought that was the Warner Bros Frog? Someone please clarify
MINDSET OF AN ALASKAN
Warner brothers owns the loony toons franchise.
HELLO MY BABY HELLO MY DARLING HELLO MY RAG TIME GALLLLLL!!!! Oh that's such a great comparison. "I SWEAR it's dangerous to cut old potassium! I swear it! It'll catch on fire! Here, let me smear it paper thin and vigorously rub it back and forth to build up friction heat to prove it!"
I want to see him try to refine the potassium from bananas
Crazcosmo
How about potatoes
I don't think he can grow his own bananas
i hope this gets 1.3 million likes lol thats a good idea if it is possible
Avocado would have a better return
SinisterMinister avocado are pretty available, but not cheaper. But if you need less of them for a better yield it may end up being cheaper and less time consuming
You see the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide...
If you get that stuff in your eyes, rinse it out with oxygen dihydride.
Decarbonised Methanol is just as deadly.
You get it as a product of mixing sodium oxide with hydrochloric acid, you shouldn't be playing with this
Can’t believe that we are consuming such dangerous chemical on a daily basis. We should ban it already. It’s even in the rain.
Also we also should ban C6H12O6 while we are at it, Highly dangerous stuff, it even creates a reaction in combination with certain microbes which destroys hydroxyapatite, really really bad stuff.
Kolafloro and it’s a byproduct when you burn Ammonia. Really bad stuff.
Can you extract aluminum from deodorant? Theres as much as 20% aluminum in some brands
That'd be cool
or blueberry's
I know a guy on discord that plays Roblox named mattyice48 I think
"It's very dangerous if you don't know what will happen. Thankfully, I do"
*nothing Cody thought would happen, actually happened*
Education? DEMONETIZED
Great to see you back on the regular channel educating us.
Slikx666 Why the hell did you use a fucked toe as a profile picture
Aaron Harris It's just a selfie, some people use a picture of themselves with their new nose ring, I just use my toe after having half the nail removed.
What's the other channel?
Hopefully the thumbnail doesn’t flag this video
You know it is serious when Cody says "This is totally fine" while wearing heavy gloves
A new name for the video: "Why Potassium Metal is Fun! (And Why I'm Missing Fingers)"
Mary Udomah lol
Mary Udomah All it takes to to get monetization!
This video perfectly encapsulates how unpredictable unstable chemical reactions can be. Even when you're prepared for the negative reactions, you can't rely on them. Something like this would make someone think they got lucky and drop their guard, then a second later they're in trouble.
Cody, I'll have to disappoint you there. This is not correct. What you saw was *not* due to the superoxide cover reacting with potassium. There's basically none of it on those samples.
What you did there is forced a *reduction of cellulose with potassium* . Gypsum board is covered with heavy paper so when those two get in intimate contact, potassium is oxidized into KOH, and cellulose is reduced to carbon and other simple compounds (because it's not efficient mixing). You can see that carbon right there, it's obvious.
That initially releases heat which will, if the sample is small enough, melt the metal and then mixing becomes much better so the reaction goes out of control, leading even to a metal fire if there's enough potassium left.
For this reason it's incredibly dangerous to wipe potassium with paper towels. Even dabbing, if forceful, will trigger a reaction.
One important thing is not to store alkali metals in mineral oil. Those oils became common because of the disinformation spreading online, initiated by eBay sellers who ship alkali metals like that to avoid the customs sniffing kerosene. Of course, shipping is one thing, but storage is something else. Mineral oils are tough to render completely inert. They contain various reducible groups in molecules.
*Alkali metals are to be stored in purified kerosene* in airtight bottles filled almost to the top to exclude as much air as possible. It solves the problem of wiping, too, because kerosene is much easier to gently remove as it also evaporates, unlike mineral oil.
Actual potassium rust crust is yellow and thick. Not only it reacts with potassium if pressed against it with a knife, but is also crystalline and can explode if crushed. There are organic peroxides inside.
Accidents with potassium happen when someone ignorant of this danger grabs a bottle of old potassium and starts cutting the crust. Even if it doesn't explode (less ordered, tiny crystals are more stable than nice big ones), it releases lots of heat, fizzes, melts the surface and triggers a metal fire.
no cody is right on this one, he is the one with a successful channel you big dumb hater
splat, I'm not a hater. I just happen to know what I'm talking about. I have experience with using this material.
get this comment to the top
splat that was a terrible attempt at sarcasm if that was one.
Sooo what ur saying is I should soak my bananas in mineral oil?
One of the reasons I like this channel is that you don't bullshit when a demo doesn't go exactly as planned. Kudos for not editing or screwing around to make it more dramatic.
Classic Cody, always looking for excuses to play with alkaline metals :D
Alkali*
It is said that gold can be physically pounded to just an atom or two in thickness. I'd like to see that. Then its used as gold leaf to usually be applied to wood like a picture/door frame.
Another idea for a small video: I've noticed when I cook on the gas stovetop that water reacts kind of interestingly. If I am heating up a pot and then turn the burner off suddenly the top reacts with a sort of gasp... like it is releasing a breathe and some steam comes of it. Why does it do this and how can I take advantage of it in my cooking?
If it gets much worse than that it can be dangerous just to open the bottle. I had a teaching job where the previous teacher had bought half a kilogram of the stuff back in the 70's and it was terrifyingly corroded. Honestly, I should have contacted the fire department regarding removal, but I just suited up and carefully carried it outside to dispose of it properly. It was one of those things where I knew exactly what could happen and was just happy that nothing did happen.
oh goodness that sounds like fun..
I have used potassium a lot during my own lab work (in organometallic chemistry research), and it always looks basically the same as your sample. The tiniest amount of oxygen or moisture will oxidise the surface, even under heavy mineral oils. You would be surprised at how much moisture the oil itself can absorb - we were always told "oil and water don't mix", which is true enough for the bulk liquids, but on the microscopic level, much less so.
Take hexane as an example, one of the most non-polar solvents in existence, so how much water can that contain? Well, whenever we got new bottles of solvent for the lab, we would always press some fresh sodium wire directly into each bottle and leave it for a few days before using any or putting it into the solvent stills. We could judge how "wet" the solvents were by how much they fizzed and bubbled when the sodium wire went into them. As you might expect, the ether and THF were always wet. But surprisingly, the hexane was often noticeably and significantly worse. Even heavy oils like diesel fuel can absorb a fair amount of water - enough to require moisture separators for some applications.
Anyway, I doubt you really had any significant amount of potassium superoxide on your samples, mainly because there was no yellow tinge to them. Potassium superoxide can form, but usually on potassium that has been exposed to much more oxygen, such as in a container that the oil has leaked out of, letting the chunks dry out. It tends to form fluffy yellow crystals, as a combination of potassium superoxide and potassium carbonate, the latter as a result of potassium hydroxide absorbing carbon dioxide from the surrounding air. A bit like when old alkaline batteries leak, and you get that fluffy white buildup of crystals as the potassium hydroxide electrolyte is slowly released.
So what caused the fire then? Well, you were apparently cutting and scraping your potassium on top of a piece of "gypsum board", or what we call plasterboard in the UK. Gypsum alone is fairly inert stuff, but in gypsum board, it is sandwiched between two layers of unbleached card, made from paper pulp. This has a fair amount of moisture in it, so the potassium was probably reacting with that, plus of course the oxygen from the air. It doesn't take much water to make potassium spark up, and the paper layer has more than enough. Next time, try doing this with a plastic or glazed ceramic surface if you want a more reliable result.
Why do the potassium and sodium metals appear purple, especially compared to the knife? Are they actually that color, or is that just the lighting/camera?
They are actually that color! this camera is closer to what the eye sees than anything I've used previously.
I love Cody's genuine determination to set us on fire.
Crazy to see how quickly the surface of potassium oxidizes
i dont imagine many people who dont know what they're doing have potassium metal laying around still cool to see
That "Watter" seems to be the new shit!
Phonics says that's correct way of spelling "water", because with only one consonant between the two vowels the A should have a long "A" sound, and sound like "Waiter". so Phonics is to blame.
English really needs a spelling reform. From Hungary with love, .NetRolller 3D.
If that were the case, "watter" would rhyme with "hatter". It doesn't because it's an irregular vowel sound, so rules like that go out the window.
Joaquin, 'water' does have a long 'a'. But English is based upon a number of root languages, mainly from all over Europe, from Asia, and also some of the old native tongues of Great Britain. There are also a wide range of regional dialects and pronunciations, even in England. As a result, much of the language appears to have inconsistent rules, and that makes it quite hard for many foreigners (and even native speakers) to learn to speak and write fluently. My favourite inconsistently-pronounced group of letters is 'ough'. Look up words containing it, to see why.
It's mainly used to extinguish fires, and as we can see in the video, isn't very effective
"maybe you get a little bit lucky" love it
oh great, cody made a fire. waiting for the next account suspension video...
It's so interesting to know that pure alkali metals are more like a putty than a shiny metallic
And as you see, if I hit it with a Sledgehammer, it will... Oh, ok but if I hit it with this bunsen burner it will... Hm ok, but see, if i submerge it into lava it... Yes, finally. See, it could ignite even under normal laboratory conditions!
Yet, people managed to do just that by accident on two separate occasions in my lab...
Scraping could very well happen in a lab. Specifically during cleanup when one would be very likely to use plastic scrapers to remove stuck on gunk.
"Oxidized potassium is incredibly dangerous and very sensitive"
*proceeds to mash it with knife repeatedly with minimal results*
Wash your bananas
Here goes Cody handling dangerous chemicals with chopsticks
Great cody, now you're gonna get taken down again for showing us that old potassium is flammable
Cody posting this demonstrates he is a true scientist. He doesn't say "it WILL ignite" nor does he mislabel the video.
This is why you SHOULDN'T cut it: Risk of fire. The potassium he had was old and much of it was oxidized: Imagine pure potassium.
Wait you showed a knife aren't you scared of getting attacked by youtube?
He's a savage
New series: painting with alkali metals.
Refine potassium from bananas!
It's easier to get it from a bag of fertiliser.
Shhhhh just go to sleep
There's not enough potassium to get anything meaningful from bananas
It would take tons of bananas. As in thousands of kilos.
You'd be surprised just how much potassium is in a Ton of bananas. At routine checks at shipping docks, large crates of bananas will often have enough ambient radioactive decay to show as hotspots when checked with a meter.
The dock management do this to prevent the illegal transfer of unrefined nuclear material and or bomb ingredients.
Will my old banana have the same effect
Mr Smurf if it's very old, it may burn in your eyes while cutting
No
Did he pull the potassium out with a pair of chopsticks?
okay so far you've gotten lucky
Cool TH-cam tip: If you type "awesome" on your keyboard the TH-cam video progress bar will become AWESOME and become rainbow (You may have to type it fast)
okay, dont use potassium as playdough stand in, got it.
I think you're the only TH-camr who doesn't have a shitty intro. Your intros always get me hyped for learning random chemistry junk
Yeah, I was just about to cut some old potassium I had lying around. Thanks for the tip.
Just remember if you are cutting it, do NOT then smash it, smear it, add more, put it in a heap, smear it again and then scrape it...It WILL make a little puff of fire and could potentially harm the top layer of your skin!!! Safety first!
I've seen potassium without visual oxidation go off after cutting. Watching you smashing it about without it going off was crazy!! Be safe and good job
We had two fires like that in my lab. In both cases, the potassium was immersed in hexane, which caught fire with it.
The first time, someone used a fire extinguisher, which caused the beaker to tip over, spilling the burning hexane in the fumehood. That was a serious fire, and damaged the fumehood.
The second time, the other guy just covered the beaker with some aluminium foil, and it stopped burning right away.
"let me show you what will happen" "no.. not that..." "this is what will happen" " no.. not that..." "ok, let's assume you smear it like peanut butter really hard and fast" "no... not that"
"DAMN IT!!! JUST IGNITE ALREADY!!!!!"
Channel strike in 3... 2...
Cody Ross, painting slightly annoyed volatile but happy clouds.
This video should be entitled : Oxidized Potassium metal is very safe UNTIL you try to spread it with a knife like butter on your toasts xD
Cody, still trying to teach us how to blow up our house but fail miserably. After the 13941th attempt, he finally manages to get some sparks and get striked by youtube. The sparks were too dangerous, they say.
So what you're saying is... Don't substitute butter for metallic potassium when making a sandwich.
No, butter is more lethal.
I watched a minute long ad before the video, i love you Cody
That would be a interesting thing to have in a survival kit, little chunk of old potassium. When you need a fire just take a knife and smear it across a log.
Instance Gaming “Satan’s danger butter”
or pour some water on it.
I honestly get overjoyed everytime a new video is up
Nice chopstick skills!
Serious question: How do you know everything about everything?
College. Get a science degree.
Google
MMM RRR he’s implanted google into his brain, while simultaneously remembering all from his past life’s with one spent in every science career
I have a MS in Chemistry. Still don't know as much as this geologist about chemicals.
He doesn't, he's learning just like anyone else, and then he shows us the cooler bits of what he learns. Learning this stuff takes work, and he deserves the credit for putting in the work.
You should have sacrificial blades for that, dont ruin the temper on a good SAK by burning K on it. Now realistically this was probably benign but the finish on those is nice too, but i guess you can buff that out. Still, sacrificial blades man, short lifespan, can made of anything harder than the material needed to be cut.
I could definitely see this happening, you smoke a joint, you're not paying attention, you go to make a potassium & table sammiche, start spreading & BAMM!!!
joey dubbs76 that's Darwinism for ya!
Yep
hate when that happens
(This might sound rude but I promise it’s a compliment!) every night when I’m struggling to even get tired in the night I come to your TH-cam channel and watch long videos which successfully gets me to the point where I struggle to keep my eyes open. Your voice is just soooo calming! In the day obviously I love your videos but I come here to let your voice relax me
Watter :D My favorite kind of liquid
I remember a science lesson where I think my science teacher, Mr. Hawtin, was expecting the sodium to just fizzle & chase around the surface of the water bath.
He dropped a chunk in and it sank & there was this huge, bass retort as the bottom of the glass tank blew out! Stunning stuff! That was in 1975 and it's still a vivid memory!
This was almost a Parker square of a chemical react
"Waterjet Cutting Lab" is giving them a whole lot of credit.
I'll keep this in mind next time im handling my pure samples of alkali metals
What I've learned from this video is that it's safe to cut old oxidize pottasium with a knife.
Isn't all potassium old though?
The atoms are old, and you definitely shouldn't cut those. But the context here is obviously the age of the chunk of metal itself.
An Elderly Mushroom
I don't know, but all other countries are run by little girls, and all other countries have inferior Potassium.
+Buddy Clem Jaghamash!
You could detect early heating before the smoke, boiling oil and fire by using a thermal imaging camera. These are very precise and can detect temperature changes of .1 degrees C.
This is the most Bob Ross video I have seen by someone other than Bob Ross, I was wondering when "happy little flames" were going to get a mention.
I am also left wondering how many bananas worth of potassium were in that sample.
I haven't even watched the video yet, the title is a reason to watch your videos
"Why You Shouldn't Cut Old Potassium" extreme build up throughout the video and at the end, you see a match flame... OH YEAH THAT'LL SHOW EM
NDexis he specifically says if the variables were changed, like the we quantity could be disasterous. I find it awefully funny that people actually need to physically watch the disaster played out on a large scale to believe it.
Hey Cody! A funny story happened to me today that I knew I just had to tell. Today in my organic chemistry class my lab partner asked if I watched your channel. I asked why, and they told me I look a little like you and made them think of you because of a conversions about great science channels. Thanks for adding to the list of names I get called around campus. Also, happy to know there's a following here in WV.
Strange how the 'metal' reacts almost like cake frosting.
having this quite underwhelming effect, and still uploading it... I really love you Cody!!!
Looks like the world's spiciest cheese spread.
Cody is so safe that he struggles to even INDUCE an accident.
And here goes YT to demonitize him again
YT is a strange place ......poor cody
김성윤 wait why
I don't think the demonetization is the real concern since that just prevents ads from playing rather than killing the channel. The real problem is being flagged as an actual rule violation that results in account suspension. That's not even necessarily YT's doing (though it is their fault for giving people the power to do it), more likely it's flat earthers and jealous science snobs manually reporting him out of spite because they can't prove their own points.
Wow, the speed of oxidation was fun to watch. Thanks.
I thought this was a Bob Ross video the way he was mixing the potassium
Cody's new metal-on-paper technique.
Watter.
Glad you're now able to upload videos
Thousand degree metal vs knife
There's a saying I've heard a few times. Peroxides kill chemists. I know you get a lot of flak for generally ignoring safety but I'm glad here at least you understood the dangers of things like potassium peroxide and superoxide and chose to test a small piece in isolation.
Esven he is not stupid my man. He doesn't overdo safety but he ain't stupid.
always use a swiss army knife to cut potassium?
“Yay I got a fire” is something that you would say if you are not expecting it 😂😂😂