Brainiac Alkali Metals

The BBC show Brainiac produced some outstandingly entertaining and sensational experiments involving vaguely science topics. They tended toward explosions and chucklesome comments along the way.

Sadly, however, at least some of their experiments - including the one above - were exaggerated with conventional explosives to make things a little more exciting than they would be in real life. You can check out more details and the stories reporting their fraudulent  behavior over on my other blog. I still show this video in class, however, because I enjoy reminding students that just because they see it on tv or on YouTube doesn't necessarily make the explanation right or real.

I also follow the video up with this one which is - as far as I can tell - real.



It is, however, a little less spectacular.