Red Hot Nickel Ball In Water (Nice Reaction)

[csziggy]

Be sure to have the sound on - it's neat!

[Suich]

1. Pretty cool!

[Brother Buzz]

2. Here's some underwater pillow basalt being formed....

demonstrating that same layer of insulating steam. Cool.

[csziggy]

4. That is so neat to watch - thank you!

But stuff like that is something I would never want to witness in person. Watching video is as close as I want to be to a volcanic eruption or a tornado.

It doesn't reduce the coolness factor.

[Brother Buzz]

5. The point is, it's relatively safe to watch

Divers can get up real close with no fear of the heat because of the insulating layer of steam, although I heard one diver in Hawaii was injured, bruised, when a pillow suddenly erupted toward him and drove the camera equipment into his face; he got to close.

[csziggy]

6. That's good to know

Every since the French vulcanologists were killed by the pyroclastic flow, I've worried about the people making the videos.

In their honor:

[Brother Buzz]

7. A pyroclastic flow is something to avoid at all costs

1902 eruption of Mount Pelée on Martinique: 30,000 people killed; the entire population of Saint-Pierre wiped out with one exception, a single prisoner secured deep, deep down in the dungeon.

[csziggy]

11. I read a book about the Mount Pelée eruption when I was a kid

Not long after I'd gotten third degree burns. The agony the victims suffered impressed me a lot.

One series of books I had read earlier had been set on an extinct volcanic island in the Caribbean. I'd thought it sounded like a neat place to live until I read about the Pelée. I decided that a volcanic island, even one thought extinct, was not a good place to live!

[Tuesday Afternoon]

3. nice sounds. thanks.

[Agschmid]

8. That was cool! I love the way it reacts with the water.

I like it when I get to watch videos of alkali metals with water... makes my day.

and of course sodium...

[In_The_Wind]

9. Love to watch the way things work.

[A HERETIC I AM]

10. Liquid Nitrogen in a swimming pool;

[Victor_c3]

12. I think that is called the leidenfrost effect

The same principle that creates that layer of steam also works in other liquids such as liquid nitrogen and molten lead. I've seen demonstrations where crazy people completely immersed their hands into both of the liquids I mentioned above without getting injured. The safety manager at my lab at work doesn't seem to be very enthusiastic about it though...