Australia's Science Forum

Hi all,

Where have you sourced a thick walled glass trough for this demo? I had these when I worked in the UK. They were shallow-ish yet quite wide in diameter.

Hi would a large glass baking tray work??

shellythenewlabby wrote: ↑06 Feb 2020, 06:52 Hi would a large glass baking tray work??

That's an idea!

Curious what the metal in water Demo is

bigmack wrote: ↑06 Feb 2020, 09:28 Curious what the metal in water Demo is

Sorry, I missed out the 'alkali' part in the title.

An ordinary glass trough will do. As long as the pieces of alkaline metal (sodium) are about rice grain size and you set up a safety screen for the teacher demonstration. We no longer have lithium metal in stock and in the thirty nine years I have been here I have never seen potassium metal being used. Besides it is on the banned list.
Unless of course the teacher wishes to do bucket chemistry. In which case a sturdy metal bucket and a large open space like an oval well away from everything and a good pair of running shoes. Probably better to steer the teacher back to the rice grains and the safety shield.

Thanks Lyn! Have done that in the past using a really big beaker but then thought a larger surface area would be better for the demonstration?

Our oval is currently a construction site so it's a no go there haha

MissKat wrote: ↑06 Feb 2020, 10:08

bigmack wrote: ↑06 Feb 2020, 09:28 Curious what the metal in water Demo is

Sorry, I missed out the 'alkali' part in the title.

Oh thanks Misskat ….LOL , should have worked that out

We use 5L beaker glass