as we all know about the reaction of alkaline metals,and that caesium is absolutely mental i am curious to know if anyone has had the courage or stupidity to obtain any francium and place it in water,what would be the amount of chaos created

rudi_in

Thank you for posting your question to the Ask Me Help Desk.

Actually, Francium has never been made in a weighable quantity.

It does exist naturally as part of the decay series of Uranium-235 (1 atom Fr to 10^18 atoms U) and estimates have put no more than 30 grams of Francium existing in the Earth's crust at any one time.

It is highly radioactive and the longest lived isotope only has a half-life of about 22 minutes.

Needless to say, none of us here at the Ask Me Help Desk has had the opportunity to put any Francium in water. Obtaining it is not really an option.

By trends, I would say that most all of it would have already reacted with the atmosphere before you could get it to the water.

Capuchin

Hi, I'm pretty sure I saw a video of someone putting some francium in water in a chemistry class.

Yes. It was nuts.

Edit: Perhaps I was mistaken, here's a link to a video from Brainiac (woo English television!) where they stick a big lump of Caesium in a bathtub of water.

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?...897&q=francium

Thomas1970

Great video. That was hilarious. It reminds me of a show we have here in the US called "Mythbusters", only better.

Capuchin

I love mythbusters too, it's a shame Braniac isn't shown over there, they do some crazy stuff.

They have a feature on the show where there's a large amount of cash in a heavy duty safe, and people can suggest ways to try to get it open, and each way they show a different one (explosives, dropping from a crane, angle grinder, etc.), whoever's way works gets the cash!

They have lots of features like that. Great show

Thomas1970

It looks like a great show. A little too wild for the BBC I guess. We get The Weakest Link instead.

Thomas1970

I did a little research. I guess it does air in the US on a channel called G4. It's a pretty new channel, and I don't get it in my cable package. So I guess it does air on the BBC network in the UK. Too bad we don't get it on the BBC channel here.

Capuchin

I think it airs in the UK on Sky One, although i didnt think I got sky one, though I regularly watch Brainiac so I must do.

If it was on BBC it would be on the BBC US channel, the show has been a massive success.

rudi_in

That was a great video.

Notice they had to keep it in a special vial under Argon conditions so that it would not react with our atmosphere.

Using Francium the same way, if enough could even be obtained, the reaction would be even more violent. You can use your imaginations there.