This man seems like the type of professor everyone would love. Extremely knowledgeable and passionate about chemistry, so much that it inspires you to learn more. Great hair as well.
My past now late Science teacher at Waitaki Boys High in the early 1980's looked like this guy with bushy hair too and with the glasses, he was from England too.
"I persuaded Neil to set fire to some Lithium" Don't Lie, Neil is a man's man and loves setting fire to anything! You just made him wait for the camera to roll xD
cari di sini aka You got it wrong. Hydrogen is a single proton and the more rarer version deuterium is a proton and single neutron. Tritium is radioactive and is a proton and double neutron. So hydrogen is kind of the element of a free proton, which attracts an electron. I knew I was right, but I made sure, I was right by looking it up again. So I am right.
+Filip Starberg Yeah, it does sound like it. You made him sound like the most sexist person in the world. Why can't you SJW's accept that Lexy made an honest mistake?
Castle bravo, they nearly blew the bikini off earth! They should have experimented just a bit more, before setting the big one off!! Great video, I want more!!
I retired from the USA "chemical arms de-militarization" industry. I had limited access to sarin. But you had to be a straight-arrow guy! I was in a carefully monitored program where even one's credit rating was a factor as to whether you were qualified. Being a Mormon was clearly an advantage.
Bikini Atoll is not it's original name. I understand it comes from the bikini, the latest in fashionable swimwear at the time, essentially a swimsuit with a ruddy great hole in the middle of it......
@@edwardtupper6374 Operation Castle Bravo was seen as a scandal in Europe, many criticized the unnecessary destruction of the island and the environment. Some days later, the bikini was announced and it became also a big scandal. So they named it after the scandal before.
Yept heard accident i've about in nuclear accident in called castle bravo bomb called the shrimp made some lithium inside the boom. weather so windy when's the bomb exploded carried radioactive particles to spread closer insland other place beside.
These videos are fantastic. They helped me pass my placement exam for my university in America and will be going into engineering. It's a genuinely fun experience to go through and learn about these chemicals that are often ignored.
'Fun' facts which they left out: The Castle Bravo nuke was 1000 times stronger than each of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nukes. And at the time of the detonation, an estimated 20,000 inhabitants of the area got radiation poisoning which caused an untold amount of birth defects throughout the following years. And the surviving victims received a measly $5,550 each in 1954 (about $48,900 in 2016).
check out Veritasium video about that! They didn't tell anyone, everything has strontium in it now. Kodak found out from the other side of the country because it was wreaking havoc with their film stock.
+Peida Li Some say when he eats coal, the pressure and heat in his stomach turns it to diamonds. An when he takes a bath, his skin has an exothermic reaction with water, he saves on his heating bills. All we know, he's Niel!
+tinnturps Some say that he lost his voice because he huffed sodium hexafluoride recreationally. And that he has to wear gloves all the time, because his bare skin can dissolve even glass. All we know is, he's called Neil.
I feel that "(new)" is a poor descriptor for this video because it's not always true. Perhaps Lithium Two, Three, Four... Super fantastic video. Much more interesting than just reacting larger and larger pieces.
I think it would have added to the chemistry aspect of lithium in discussing Castle Bravo that it was due to miscalculations of the percentages of the lithium isotopes that were expected to participate in the reaction that caused the miscalculation of the yield.
When arguing about whether the lithium burning in nitrogen experiment was successful or not, you could perform a control experiment where the heated lithium is placed into a beaker of liquefied gas that it will not react with (such as argon or xenon) and compare it to the case with liquid nitrogen.
+Alpha Go: "yess indeed. contrail conspiracies are awash with it" ==They call the chemtrails. Contrails means condensation trails and they are all condensation of water trails.
Lithium, a metal, a salt, a medicine, good for fusion, good for bombs, working battery fluid. Lots to see here. Alcoa alloyed it with aluminum to make the metal lighter.
That was pretty funny. Still, I'm not sure if he was backing up behind Neil (human shild), or backing up closer to the door (everyone for themselves, if anything should go wrong, heaven forbid, but just in case).
Please! Keep remaking your element videos. The old one was disappointing, but even as a huge chemistry buff I learned a lot from this video. Can't wait for more!
+Robert Lawton When you perform an experiment, there is something you want to find out by performing it. In the case of a demonstration, you already know what the result will be, and are just showing people what happens.
+Robert Lawton Well, even scientists aren't always precise in their word use, especially in conversation. When the professor is performing a demonstration he is of course usually performing a set of actions that were once an experiment. In general though I agree that experiment = finding out what will happen; demonstration = showing others what will happen.
If the purpose of the experiment is to verify a hypothesis (or an assumed result/outcome), which is(are) stated beforehand, those words can be used interchangeably.
snepNL and so have the British, French, Indians, Russians, Chinese, Pakistanis, Israelis, and North Koreans. And more are trying to create their own nuclear weapons. The difference is the US did it to end a World War and maintain the longest period of global peace in modern history. You're reported by the way for harassing and offensive speach.
Lillian Theuma So what? One "if" is the correctly spelled conjunction that introduces a conditional clause (it will float if you forget about the reaction) while the other "iff" is a typo.
+Eric Taylor iff means if and only if. "if you don't forget the reaction, sodium will float" is non-exclusive. It says nothing about what will happen if you do forget about the reaction. "If you don't forget, it'll float. Meanwhile if you forget, it.. will still flost." Iff, or if and only if, cancels all alternatives. "iff you don't forgrt, it will float" means you can said "if it floats, you did not forget." etc.
Hi Brady, I am absolutely in love with this channel, and I thank you all for making this happen for so long. I was wondering if you would be interested in hearing a video suggestion(s). I really find the chemistry that is a part of the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries to be very interesting, and I was wondering if you could make more videos that pertain to those fields. For example, maybe you could do a video on the chemistry of current cancer treatments. I know you have done videos on medicines and drugs before, like aspirin, but I hope you can make more of these kinds of videos in the future. Keep up the great work, and have a fantastic day!
My whole life I've been listening to a punk rock band from the eighties call "Operation Ivy" and until now I had no idea that they got their name from that hydrogen bomb operation. Huh..ya' learn something every day.
I love how I absolutely hated chemistry I'm in highschool yet I'm perfectly content sitting down and watching dozens of your videos in a row happy that I'm learning something.
Makes me wish I would have actually paid attention. I currently would love to have a career in chemistry, more so than I do already, but don't fancy going to college at nearly 30 years of age.
Lithium is my alltime favorite element. Ever since I was a kid I've loved nukes and at the age of 6 I already knew most of the tests by heart like BravoB etc. Though for the first time I have to add one use that the Professor didn't mention; Lithium can also be used in submarines where it can purify the air and re-release oxygen from being bound with other elements and compounds. This is why subs theoretically can stay submerged for so long.
Edison had a long history of developing and producing batteries. His nickel-potash wet cells replaced lead-acid batteries in US submarines, which produced chlorine gas upon contact with salt water and thus posed a huge risk. Unfortunately the nickel-potash produced hydrogen gas when charging and led to two fatal submarine explosions during WWI.
+pandemoniummisfits Tritium is a VERY weak radioactive substance one of the weakest, you don't have anything to fear from something that small. It is a weak beta emitter, can't even get through your cloths or skin really. And it has a very short biological half life in your body (it would quickly get exhaled or turned into water and water leaves you your body roughly in 3 days)
+Tom: The tritium exists as a gas but it is kept in a glass vial. The beta radiation (which are basically fast moving electrons) have an energy of 19 keV I think and that is very weak. They can't pass through the glass. When tritium decays, it doesn't emit gamma rays. The electron anti-neutrino emitted passes through everything and is safe.
It looked to me that the Li had burned out. I'm not nit picking but why not fill the beaker first with LN2 and then light and lower.. I'm also thinking of the oxidation product in a N2 atmosphere. Lithium Nitride?
I like too how Nirvana's "Lithium" E.P. single was shown when Sir Professor Martyn talked about Lithium carbonate being used for treating depression. That's my favourite song of theirs.
The matter of the use of LiD in nuclear fusion (i.e. ‘H’) bombs, is rather complicated, as BOTH Li-6 & Li-7 isotopes of lithium are converted into tritium (T) after being bombarded by either protons or neutrons from the initial fission bomb contained therein. The T then formed undergoes fusion to He under the H-bomb conditions, thus increasing its total yield. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium#Nuclear for a more detailed explanation.
You completely glossed over why the bikini atoll bomb was much more powerful than expected. The lithium duteride was composed of 60% lithium 7, which was calculated to be inert. Needless to say, it was not, and turned what was supposed to be a 4 megaton detonation into a 15 megaton one.
Edison tried lithium hydroxide in Nickle-Iron batteries. But the key here is that it was not necessarily needed and that potassium hydroxide works just as well. And the potassium is probably cheaper to use anyways.
If you look at the neutron reaction cross-section for Lithium-6 you see a big peak at a few hundred keV neutron energy, where you get the nucleus splitting apart and producing Tritium. If you look at Lithium-7 using neutrons of energies that are easily available from, say, fission reactors or most ordinary neutron sources you see nothing of substance up through a few MeV. That's why the designers of the Castle Bravo device thought that the Lithium-7 would basically be inert in the reaction. However, whereas the fast neutrons from fission reactions tend to have energies around 1 MeV, the neutrons from fusion reactions are much more energetic. As it turns out, Lithium-7 has a decent neutron reactivity in the several MeV up to 10 MeV range, just the sort of neutrons that would be abundant in a fusion bomb, and it too produces Tritium as a result. You might not be able to make a fusion bomb using only Lithium-7 Deuteride, but with low enrichment of Lithium-6, you get a similar yield to high enrichment Lithium. Which they learned the hard way with Castle Bravo. There's another interesting story of neutron cross-section in regards to natural Uranium as well. Uranium-238 also has a very low neutron cross-section around 1 MeV, but it increases substantially around several MeV. As it happens, this is in the tapering upper edge of fission neutron energies, and this is why you can't make a bomb with pure U-238. Because not enough of the neutrons produced from fissioning can cause a chain-reaction fission reaction, so the overall natural neutron multiplication factor is less than 1. But fusion produces tons of high energy neutrons, so if you simply line your fusion bomb with natural or even depleted Uranium then you'll get an extra fission reaction for all the escaping neutrons, more or less doubling the yield of the bomb. And this was the case with the Castle Bravo device as well, which used a natural Uranium casing around the fusion fuel capsule. If the fusion reactions were the only story, then there wouldn't have been any extra radioactive fallout because fusion reactions are fairly "clean", but because of the fission-fusion-fission design of the bomb the extra fusion reactions produced extra fission reactions, and those created the hazardous fission byproduct radioisotopes in the fallout.
It should be noted that the US did build a liquid fueled thermonuclear bomb called the Mark 16 (TX/EC16) as an interim weapon before "dry type" weapons tested in Castle Bravo was developed. They were reportedly manufactured in Jan 1954 and all retired by April of that year. The weapon had a yield of 6 to 8 Mt and weighed almost 20,000kg, while the dry weapons that replaced it (the Mk14, 15, 17 and 21) all had yield to weight ratios that greatly exceeded it.
Alright, I got a question for you guys. Why does a lithium battery get damaged when charged above 4.2v? Lithium cells are really temperamental compared to NiMH cells or lead-acid, which increases the cost of making lithium batteries as they need charge protection circuitry. Might make an interesting video explaining the science of electrochemistry in lithium cells!
Soooo, when will you make a video about alkali metals and coulomb explosions? I think this theory is quite well accepted by now. And even if it isn't, it definitely deserves a video where you explain it. :)
Great video - I've watched those nuclear test videos about a thousand times, interesting to see how the weapons progressed. Keep up the good work, Sir!
I'm glad I found this channel. I like watching this while working at my cubical at work. This is more interesting and educational than my coworker/supervisor's chit chatting...
The Foote Mineral Co went out of business leaving several toxic sites from their mineral processing. One is now a shopping center called Main Street at Exton.
The other thing lithium is useful for is breeding tritium for a fusion power plant. In the animation shown, the deuterium-tritium fusion reaction produces a helium nucleus and a spare neutron. If that neutron hits a lithium atom it produces a tritium and a helium nucleus. That is, the fusion reactor breeds its own fuel from the lithium. Thus, the fuel for a fusion power plant is deuterium and, indirectly, lithium.
Interesting side note, the fusion stages of fusion bombs are very large compared to their fission stage brothers. This is because while fusion is more energy dense, fusion materials are less physically dense, IE compare lithium or liquid lithium to solid uranium metal...order of magnitude difference in physical density. As a result, mixed bombs, ones that use a combination of fission and fusion end up being ideal to mount on fixed sized weapon systems.
The most fascinating thing about Lithium is why it was created during nucleogenesis with it's specific isotopic ratios. We still can't explain the relative abundance of Li6 relative to Li7, despite being able to correctly predict, with high precision, the amounts of H and H2. Why is Lithium nucleogenesis a problem?
+Chris DIYer Lithium itself is a very powerful reduction agent, one of the strongest that exists actually. This is why most batteries these days utilize it. However, lithium chemistry is still not super cheap. If you run the total system costs of lithium battery storage + solar, it ends up being more expensive than alternatives. That might change, everything is getting cheaper all the time, but for now, still priced out of the range most people can afford
+Chris DIYer solar power works on (DC) slow storage. Lithium batteries work best on AC/DC power source. Power companies are too greedy to work out how to combine both systems.
+Seedeng Jawn What are you on about? The Desoto Solar Power station in Florida generates 25 MW's with plans to deliver 250 MW's in the next few years. Also Lithium Batteries don't work with AC.
+Chris DIYer Seems you're trolling as you already knew the answer :) Li-Ion batteries are much better than Pb-Acid. They charge quicker, have a much longer life and have great performance aspects. Li-Hydride sounds expensive. Glad to see someone else out here wanting to harness the trillions of watts falling on planet earth this very second. Shame that all the crooked energy companies of today are forming monopolies on the source. Little minds like us, through commenting, give them all the info they'll ever need. Burns me up!
Not at all...just one question asking a great scientist/mind. I agree...the whole world could be powered by RE sources (solar-wind-hydro). However, greed is all too apparent. Trolling - make a deliberately offensive or provocative online posting with the aim of upsetting someone or eliciting an angry response from them.
Tokamak reactor at ITER and I think Germany's is hoping to use lithium blankets that would bread tritium in the reaction of deuterium and some starter tritium, that way all you need to start the fusion reaction is deuterium and lithium, and maybe just a little tritium at the start, then it self breeds tritium from lithium blankets.
I liked how professor covered his ears before the explosion. Anyone would see a flame and think "what a nice flame", but a true chemist thinks "yeah, it is gonna blow"
You could separate lithium 6 from lithium 7 with paraffin wax! Isotopes have different melting points! Heavy water freezes at 3.8 degrees celcius! Although no one has made a Hydrogen bomb without uranium, or plutonium, you could by using liquid hydrogen, and liquid oxygen, and placing the device under immense pressure! I'd use cork instead of foam, and I'd use mirrors with magnifying lenses for the reflective layer! Dyneema is strong, Graphene is strong, there are strong materials out there!
I am a new subscriber and wanted to say how much I appreciate all of these wonderful videos made by the University of Nottingham. Is it possible for the professor to explain what depleted uranium is and why it is used in cannon shells? I've never quite understood how uranium can be depleted to the point of becoming a 'safe' metal. Thank-you.
A big misconception is that nitrogen is so inert due to its bond strength. That is not so, it is because its sigma bonds are of higher energy that its pi bonds, where the sigma bonds are resistant to reaction. To cement the comment, acetylene, has a triple bond between the two carbons, but is bond order is different to nitrogen and is very reactive (even explosive). The fact that lithium will react in nitrogen is unique, due to atomic size, not to reactivity, otherwise caesium would explode in nitrogen. It does not it is inert, as is sodium.
This man seems like the type of professor everyone would love. Extremely knowledgeable and passionate about chemistry, so much that it inspires you to learn more. Great hair as well.
My past now late Science teacher at Waitaki Boys High in the early 1980's looked like this guy with bushy hair too and with the glasses, he was from England too.
This channel is the best chemistry education I've ever had, delivered by a brilliant professor at a brilliant university. Absolutely incredible.
"I persuaded Neil to set fire to some Lithium"
Don't Lie, Neil is a man's man and loves setting fire to anything! You just made him wait for the camera to roll xD
We went from dropping lithium into water for lolz to thermonuclear weapons. Escalation.
CONSEQUENCES
Explosion*
I think it was relate.
That’s right
Why of course. Go big or go home!
"But what is deuterium?"
"I was coming to that, pleb. Sit down and get schooled."
LOL! Yeah, It kind of sounded like that.
Deuterium is isotop from hidrogen. There are 3 isotop from hidrogen
1. Protium : 1neutron
2.Deuterium : 2neutron
3.Tritium : 3 nautron
That was Exodus. Sit down, pack your bags and go home, you all. Tomorrow I will teach you about Deuter....
cari di sini aka You got it wrong.
Hydrogen is a single proton and the more rarer version deuterium is a proton and single neutron.
Tritium is radioactive and is a proton and double neutron.
So hydrogen is kind of the element of a free proton, which attracts an electron.
I knew I was right, but I made sure, I was right by looking it up again. So I am right.
Francisco Nieves What?
I like how Neil started backing away before the sodium even caught on flames. Years of experience have taught him well :P
My seven year old is enthralled with your videos. Thank you.
+Marcus Lake It's nice to see young curious minds~ Hope he contributes to science in the future ^ ^
+Lexyvil Thanks! I am confident that she will :)
+Filip Starberg Yeah, it does sound like it. You made him sound like the most sexist person in the world. Why can't you SJW's accept that Lexy made an honest mistake?
Filip Starberg Don't worry, a lot of people in my chemistry class are females, they account for more than half, I'm sure.
+InfiniteMushroom Lol. I'm sorry. I just found your comment really funny. xD
I
Is there a fortunate manner in which to be exposed to radiation?
@@maskedmarvyl4774 Cancer treatment i suppose. Not fortunate but much less unfortunate that's for sure
MaskedMarvyl When you have an X-ray?
this is the most brittish conversation i have heard, love it tho
sniff upper lip
2:00 Inside of Neil: "We really need to fully close these fumehoods. I always have to wipe the floor after our experiments"
+P@r@m3d!© It's not an experiment. But you've made me laugh :)
Everything is an experiment ;)
+Wojtek Kiraga Why not?
Alex Lee It's demonstration, because we already know the outcome. You do an experiment when you don't know (and want to see) what will happen.
Thank for explaining.
Why do chemists like nitrates so much?
They're cheaper than day rates.
sorry had to.
"End on a happy note."
"Terrorists can get a hold of Sarin."
:(
Had me dying honestly xD
Castle bravo, they nearly blew the bikini off earth! They should have experimented just a bit more, before setting the big one off!! Great video, I want more!!
I retired from the USA "chemical arms de-militarization" industry. I had limited access to sarin. But you had to be a straight-arrow guy! I was in a carefully monitored program where even one's credit rating was a factor as to whether you were qualified. Being a Mormon was clearly an advantage.
The nuclear test on the Bikini Atoll is basically humanity in a nutshell: "Just _look_ at this place! This is paradise!" "Yeah ... let's blow it up."
Bikini Atoll is not it's original name. I understand it comes from the bikini, the latest in fashionable swimwear at the time, essentially a swimsuit with a ruddy great hole in the middle of it......
@Matt S It also sweetens the name of the atoll, since no one thinks anymore about nuclear test hearing the it.
@@edwardtupper6374 Operation Castle Bravo was seen as a scandal in Europe, many criticized the unnecessary destruction of the island and the environment. Some days later, the bikini was announced and it became also a big scandal. So they named it after the scandal before.
If you explode 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,001,000,000,185,926 mega nukes on earth,IT WOULD BE THE END OF THE WORLD!!!+!!
Yept heard accident i've about in nuclear accident in called castle bravo bomb called the shrimp made some lithium inside the boom. weather so windy when's the bomb exploded carried radioactive particles to spread closer insland other place beside.
These videos are fantastic. They helped me pass my placement exam for my university in America and will be going into engineering. It's a genuinely fun experience to go through and learn about these chemicals that are often ignored.
'Fun' facts which they left out: The Castle Bravo nuke was 1000 times stronger than each of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nukes. And at the time of the detonation, an estimated 20,000 inhabitants of the area got radiation poisoning which caused an untold amount of birth defects throughout the following years. And the surviving victims received a measly $5,550 each in 1954 (about $48,900 in 2016).
Russias Tsar bomba blast ,the fallout circled the WORLD at elavated levels of nucleides for 39 years.
check out Veritasium video about that! They didn't tell anyone, everything has strontium in it now. Kodak found out from the other side of the country because it was wreaking havoc with their film stock.
Don't the people approving this breath in the air in the atmosphere which now has been poisoned? Maybe they want to destroy planet earth.
I think its time Neil's story is told
+tinnturps i think he's the Stig like 420% sure
+Peida Li Some say when he eats coal, the pressure and heat in his stomach turns it to diamonds. An when he takes a bath, his skin has an exothermic reaction with water, he saves on his heating bills. All we know, he's Niel!
+tinnturps Some say that he lost his voice because he huffed sodium hexafluoride recreationally. And that he has to wear gloves all the time, because his bare skin can dissolve even glass. All we know is, he's called Neil.
+tinnturps Some say he was the inspiration for Walter White in AMC's Breaking Bad. All we know is, he's called Neil.
I'd rather not, I like him as an unknown entity.
It seems like Neil is easily provoked into dropping alkali metals into water.
ALL chemists are
"And when Neil encouraged it.."
'huh? *imagines him cheering it on*'
".. with a flame,"
That's not encouraging!! xD
+MaxArceus That's more like threatening!
so he basically, shall we say, lit a fire up under it's a$$?
Nice use of the Nirvana album.
It's not an album, it's a single.
I don’t understand why these videos get a dislike. This is all fantastic stuff.
If only all Chemistry professors could be so inspired & inspiring.
1:30 You can see the professor in the background. His bravery in the face of scientific experimentation is unparalleled...
I feel that "(new)" is a poor descriptor for this video because it's not always true. Perhaps Lithium Two, Three, Four...
Super fantastic video. Much more interesting than just reacting larger and larger pieces.
I think it would have added to the chemistry aspect of lithium in discussing Castle Bravo that it was due to miscalculations of the percentages of the lithium isotopes that were expected to participate in the reaction that caused the miscalculation of the yield.
This professor is the best chemistry teacher I have ever had! Thanks for the channel!
When arguing about whether the lithium burning in nitrogen experiment was successful or not, you could perform a control experiment where the heated lithium is placed into a beaker of liquefied gas that it will not react with (such as argon or xenon) and compare it to the case with liquid nitrogen.
Any chance your bio chemist could do a more in depth video on the medical application of lithium and it's mechanics on the brain?
Awesome video though, and the older bomb videos are intriguing.
yess indeed. contrail conspiracies are awash with it
+shadowlang404 do they have a bio chemist in periodic videos?
+Alpha Go:
"yess indeed. contrail conspiracies are awash with it"
==They call the chemtrails.
Contrails means condensation trails and they are all condensation of water trails.
Or a Pharmacologist/Pharmacist
Finally! I love lithium! I eat it every day with a cup of milk.
+Fabricio Fanfa What?
+Kabeer Jay - I assume Fabricio takes it for Bipolar Depression.
Rationalist411 Oh...
Ya
Or, maybe it was just a joke. Just maybe.
Lithium, a metal, a salt, a medicine, good for fusion, good for bombs, working battery fluid. Lots to see here. Alcoa alloyed it with aluminum to make the metal lighter.
Haha, love how Pr Martyn backs off plugging his ears at 1:33. :)
That was pretty funny. Still, I'm not sure if he was backing up behind Neil (human shild), or backing up closer to the door (everyone for themselves, if anything should go wrong, heaven forbid, but just in case).
I could sit and listen to Martyn for hours!
Please! Keep remaking your element videos. The old one was disappointing, but even as a huge chemistry buff I learned a lot from this video. Can't wait for more!
Wow. Powerful. Thank you Sir Poliakoff!! This is by far my favorite episode.
What elemental metals can be cut with a knife? Li, Na, K, Ca?
Please explain the difference between an "experiment" and a "demonstration".
+Robert Lawton When you perform an experiment, there is something you want to find out by performing it. In the case of a demonstration, you already know what the result will be, and are just showing people what happens.
Oh. It seems like Marty uses those words interchangeably.
+Robert Lawton Well, even scientists aren't always precise in their word use, especially in conversation. When the professor is performing a demonstration he is of course usually performing a set of actions that were once an experiment.
In general though I agree that experiment = finding out what will happen; demonstration = showing others what will happen.
An 'experiment' is doing something to find out something, a 'demonstration' is showing it. To put it simply.
If the purpose of the experiment is to verify a hypothesis (or an assumed result/outcome), which is(are) stated beforehand, those words can be used interchangeably.
You could sense his frustration when he says "it didn't work once."
then you've really missed the point... he KNOWS it doesn't work, which is why he does it.
So there's also no frustration to 'sense'.
My grandpa was stationed at Eniwetok in the Air Force, he worked on the planes they used to drop the test bombs.
your granddad is a fuckface
+snepNL learn some manners.
snepNL and so have the British, French, Indians, Russians, Chinese, Pakistanis, Israelis, and North Koreans. And more are trying to create their own nuclear weapons. The difference is the US did it to end a World War and maintain the longest period of global peace in modern history. You're reported by the way for harassing and offensive speach.
+lookoutforchris thanks:)
I do hope he didnt get any kind of residual radiation off the planes. ):
0:10 I'm betting sodium will float even if you DON'T forget the reaction. The reactions of the chemical elements are not dependent on human memory.
Note the captipns said if, not iff :P
Lillian Theuma
So what? One "if" is the correctly spelled conjunction that introduces a conditional clause (it will float if you forget about the reaction) while the other "iff" is a typo.
+Eric Taylor iff means if and only if. "if you don't forget the reaction, sodium will float" is non-exclusive. It says nothing about what will happen if you do forget about the reaction. "If you don't forget, it'll float. Meanwhile if you forget, it.. will still flost." Iff, or if and only if, cancels all alternatives. "iff you don't forgrt, it will float" means you can said "if it floats, you did not forget." etc.
But what about dilithium crystals?
:P
+tabularasa0606 oh you ;)
+tabularasa0606
How about Red matter?
tabularasa0606
I see you're not a big fan of that 2009 movie ;)
Mohammed Zaid
Nor the ones after that.
+Anonymous X I thought dilithium would be real because of it works if you draw the molecular orbitals. It's just not stable.
Hi Brady,
I am absolutely in love with this channel, and I thank you all for making this happen for so long. I was wondering if you would be interested in hearing a video suggestion(s). I really find the chemistry that is a part of the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries to be very interesting, and I was wondering if you could make more videos that pertain to those fields. For example, maybe you could do a video on the chemistry of current cancer treatments. I know you have done videos on medicines and drugs before, like aspirin, but I hope you can make more of these kinds of videos in the future.
Keep up the great work, and have a fantastic day!
When I was a kid I always wanted science teacher like this guy.
Same
My whole life I've been listening to a punk rock band from the eighties call "Operation Ivy" and until now I had no idea that they got their name from that hydrogen bomb operation. Huh..ya' learn something every day.
@4:50: I really like the proper british pronounciation of Advertisment (with the emphasis on the VERT).
I love how I absolutely hated chemistry I'm in highschool yet I'm perfectly content sitting down and watching dozens of your videos in a row happy that I'm learning something.
Makes me wish I would have actually paid attention. I currently would love to have a career in chemistry, more so than I do already, but don't fancy going to college at nearly 30 years of age.
I'm so happy, 'cause today I found my friends. They're in my head!
I'm so happy, 'cause today there's a new periodic video, and I'm not sad
Neil is the coolest lab technician I've ever seen
This is by far the greatest reaction channel!
Lithium is my alltime favorite element. Ever since I was a kid I've loved nukes and at the age of 6 I already knew most of the tests by heart like BravoB etc.
Though for the first time I have to add one use that the Professor didn't mention; Lithium can also be used in submarines where it can purify the air and re-release oxygen from being bound with other elements and compounds. This is why subs theoretically can stay submerged for so long.
Why don't you start loving a cat, at least you can hug a cat.
Ohey I have Bipolar disorder.
Thank you for describing it properly!
Edison had a long history of developing and producing batteries. His nickel-potash wet cells replaced lead-acid batteries in US submarines, which produced chlorine gas upon contact with salt water and thus posed a huge risk. Unfortunately the nickel-potash produced hydrogen gas when charging and led to two fatal submarine explosions during WWI.
I hope that this man never dies and is my next science teacher
Same
this was one of the best episodes yet
So are the Tritium "Night Sights" people use on their guns, for the glowing effect to see their sights in the dark, hazardous?
They can be if broken, especially near a flame source. Otherwise they're pretty safe.
+pandemoniummisfits Tritium is a VERY weak radioactive substance one of the weakest, you don't have anything to fear from something that small. It is a weak beta emitter, can't even get through your cloths or skin really. And it has a very short biological half life in your body (it would quickly get exhaled or turned into water and water leaves you your body roughly in 3 days)
Nope!
Not unless your licking dozens of guns on a daily basis that is.
+Tom:
The tritium exists as a gas but it is kept in a glass vial. The beta radiation (which are basically fast moving electrons) have an energy of 19 keV I think and that is very weak. They can't pass through the glass. When tritium decays, it doesn't emit gamma rays. The electron anti-neutrino emitted passes through everything and is safe.
It looked to me that the Li had burned out. I'm not nit picking but why not fill the beaker first with LN2 and then light and lower.. I'm also thinking of the oxidation product in a N2 atmosphere. Lithium Nitride?
Sir why is that , that the sodium metal on reaction with water form a transparent droplet (when seen in slow motion ) and then explodes with a sound ?
I liked the "cameo" of Nirvana's Lithium single's cover :)
I like too how Nirvana's "Lithium" E.P. single was shown when Sir Professor Martyn talked about Lithium carbonate being used for treating depression. That's my favourite song of theirs.
The matter of the use of LiD in nuclear fusion (i.e. ‘H’) bombs, is rather complicated, as BOTH Li-6 & Li-7 isotopes of lithium are converted into tritium (T) after being bombarded by either protons or neutrons from the initial fission bomb contained therein. The T then formed undergoes fusion to He under the H-bomb conditions, thus increasing its total yield. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium#Nuclear for a more detailed explanation.
You completely glossed over why the bikini atoll bomb was much more powerful than expected. The lithium duteride was composed of 60% lithium 7, which was calculated to be inert.
Needless to say, it was not, and turned what was supposed to be a 4 megaton detonation into a 15 megaton one.
Edison tried lithium hydroxide in Nickle-Iron batteries. But the key here is that it was not necessarily needed and that potassium hydroxide works just as well. And the potassium is probably cheaper to use anyways.
Niel deserves a channel of his own
Best Chem Show on YT
If you look at the neutron reaction cross-section for Lithium-6 you see a big peak at a few hundred keV neutron energy, where you get the nucleus splitting apart and producing Tritium. If you look at Lithium-7 using neutrons of energies that are easily available from, say, fission reactors or most ordinary neutron sources you see nothing of substance up through a few MeV. That's why the designers of the Castle Bravo device thought that the Lithium-7 would basically be inert in the reaction. However, whereas the fast neutrons from fission reactions tend to have energies around 1 MeV, the neutrons from fusion reactions are much more energetic. As it turns out, Lithium-7 has a decent neutron reactivity in the several MeV up to 10 MeV range, just the sort of neutrons that would be abundant in a fusion bomb, and it too produces Tritium as a result. You might not be able to make a fusion bomb using only Lithium-7 Deuteride, but with low enrichment of Lithium-6, you get a similar yield to high enrichment Lithium. Which they learned the hard way with Castle Bravo.
There's another interesting story of neutron cross-section in regards to natural Uranium as well. Uranium-238 also has a very low neutron cross-section around 1 MeV, but it increases substantially around several MeV. As it happens, this is in the tapering upper edge of fission neutron energies, and this is why you can't make a bomb with pure U-238. Because not enough of the neutrons produced from fissioning can cause a chain-reaction fission reaction, so the overall natural neutron multiplication factor is less than 1. But fusion produces tons of high energy neutrons, so if you simply line your fusion bomb with natural or even depleted Uranium then you'll get an extra fission reaction for all the escaping neutrons, more or less doubling the yield of the bomb. And this was the case with the Castle Bravo device as well, which used a natural Uranium casing around the fusion fuel capsule. If the fusion reactions were the only story, then there wouldn't have been any extra radioactive fallout because fusion reactions are fairly "clean", but because of the fission-fusion-fission design of the bomb the extra fusion reactions produced extra fission reactions, and those created the hazardous fission byproduct radioisotopes in the fallout.
Great video. A large amount of information in a short period of time, but still easy to understand.
I love how he uses the term Persuaded a lot when Neil probably wanted to do the experiments.
Thanks for the video of the reactions. It opened the eyes of my 10 year old son.
What a wonderful world!
@love XD Cool. Who doesn't like fire and explosions!
It should be noted that the US did build a liquid fueled thermonuclear bomb called the Mark 16 (TX/EC16) as an interim weapon before "dry type" weapons tested in Castle Bravo was developed. They were reportedly manufactured in Jan 1954 and all retired by April of that year.
The weapon had a yield of 6 to 8 Mt and weighed almost 20,000kg, while the dry weapons that replaced it (the Mk14, 15, 17 and 21) all had yield to weight ratios that greatly exceeded it.
If you dropped Caesium into that "wet hexane", would it react with the small amount of water strongly enough to ignite the hexane?
Alright, I got a question for you guys. Why does a lithium battery get damaged when charged above 4.2v? Lithium cells are really temperamental compared to NiMH cells or lead-acid, which increases the cost of making lithium batteries as they need charge protection circuitry.
Might make an interesting video explaining the science of electrochemistry in lithium cells!
Thank you professor for once again making a great educational video.
Yay! Was just studying for my chemistry test.
Soooo, when will you make a video about alkali metals and coulomb explosions? I think this theory is quite well accepted by now. And even if it isn't, it definitely deserves a video where you explain it. :)
The Bob Ross of chemistry!😂❤
Could you touch on l-Glutamate
Mainly MSG?
Would love to hear your thoughts on it,
How does the lithium work in controlling chemical imbalances in the brain?
One of the many super successful drugs that we actually have no idea how it works.
Great video - I've watched those nuclear test videos about a thousand times, interesting to see how the weapons progressed. Keep up the good work, Sir!
could you maybe do a video on capsaicin, the compound that makes chili peppers spicy?
Well it's 2019....and this element has done wonders!
I'm glad I found this channel. I like watching this while working at my cubical at work. This is more interesting and educational than my coworker/supervisor's chit chatting...
The Foote Mineral Co went out of business leaving several toxic sites from their mineral processing. One is now a shopping center called Main Street at Exton.
Castle Bravo was a 15 megaton yield because they didn't know that lithium 7 would be part of the fusion reaction.
How do lithium batteries work and why are they better? I would love to see a sequel. Great video as always Sir Martyn and Brady.
The other thing lithium is useful for is breeding tritium for a fusion power plant. In the animation shown, the deuterium-tritium fusion reaction produces a helium nucleus and a spare neutron. If that neutron hits a lithium atom it produces a tritium and a helium nucleus. That is, the fusion reactor breeds its own fuel from the lithium.
Thus, the fuel for a fusion power plant is deuterium and, indirectly, lithium.
I'm so happy, because today I found my friends
Does anyone know the name of the old video of the guy explaining the deuterium atoms that was used in the video?
Interesting side note, the fusion stages of fusion bombs are very large compared to their fission stage brothers. This is because while fusion is more energy dense, fusion materials are less physically dense, IE compare lithium or liquid lithium to solid uranium metal...order of magnitude difference in physical density. As a result, mixed bombs, ones that use a combination of fission and fusion end up being ideal to mount on fixed sized weapon systems.
So much information in such a digestible form. Thank you perfessor!
The most fascinating thing about Lithium is why it was created during nucleogenesis with it's specific isotopic ratios. We still can't explain the relative abundance of Li6 relative to Li7, despite being able to correctly predict, with high precision, the amounts of H and H2.
Why is Lithium nucleogenesis a problem?
They should call them Deuterium Bombs. That sounds so much cooler than Hydrogen Bombs.
+Tony Stark? There is a type of bomb that uses Deuterium which we call a boosted bomb, which sounds kinda cool :D
Christopher Willis no it uses an injection of tritium...
OHMYGOD....I FINALLY understand Nirvana's song. Thanks Dr. Poliakoff!
Even the song structure is bipolar and manic depressive: I'm so lonely that's okay I shaved my head... YEAH YEAH, YEAH YEAH
I love these videos so much. Thank you Brady, Sir Martin, and Neil
Can lithium hydride be used to make a solar power storage battery?
+Chris DIYer Lithium itself is a very powerful reduction agent, one of the strongest that exists actually. This is why most batteries these days utilize it. However, lithium chemistry is still not super cheap. If you run the total system costs of lithium battery storage + solar, it ends up being more expensive than alternatives. That might change, everything is getting cheaper all the time, but for now, still priced out of the range most people can afford
+Chris DIYer solar power works on (DC) slow storage. Lithium batteries work best on AC/DC power source. Power companies are too greedy to work out how to combine both systems.
+Seedeng Jawn What are you on about? The Desoto Solar Power station in Florida generates 25 MW's with plans to deliver 250 MW's in the next few years. Also Lithium Batteries don't work with AC.
+Chris DIYer Seems you're trolling as you already knew the answer :)
Li-Ion batteries are much better than Pb-Acid. They charge quicker, have a much longer life and have great performance aspects. Li-Hydride sounds expensive. Glad to see someone else out here wanting to harness the trillions of watts falling on planet earth this very second. Shame that all the crooked energy companies of today are forming monopolies on the source. Little minds like us, through commenting, give them all the info they'll ever need.
Burns me up!
Not at all...just one question asking a great scientist/mind. I agree...the whole world could be powered by RE sources (solar-wind-hydro). However, greed is all too apparent. Trolling - make a deliberately offensive or provocative online posting with the aim of upsetting someone or eliciting an angry response from them.
Tokamak reactor at ITER and I think Germany's is hoping to use lithium blankets that would bread tritium in the reaction of deuterium and some starter tritium, that way all you need to start the fusion reaction is deuterium and lithium, and maybe just a little tritium at the start, then it self breeds tritium from lithium blankets.
I liked how professor covered his ears before the explosion. Anyone would see a flame and think "what a nice flame", but a true chemist thinks "yeah, it is gonna blow"
You could separate lithium 6 from lithium 7 with paraffin wax! Isotopes have different melting points!
Heavy water freezes at 3.8 degrees celcius!
Although no one has made a Hydrogen bomb without uranium, or plutonium, you could by using liquid hydrogen, and liquid oxygen, and placing the device under immense pressure!
I'd use cork instead of foam, and I'd use mirrors with magnifying lenses for the reflective layer!
Dyneema is strong, Graphene is strong, there are strong materials out there!
I am a new subscriber and wanted to say how much I appreciate all of these wonderful videos made by the University of Nottingham. Is it possible for the professor to explain what depleted uranium is and why it is used in cannon shells? I've never quite understood how uranium can be depleted to the point of becoming a 'safe' metal. Thank-you.
A big misconception is that nitrogen is so inert due to its bond strength. That is not so, it is because its sigma bonds are of higher energy that its pi bonds, where the sigma bonds are resistant to reaction. To cement the comment, acetylene, has a triple bond between the two carbons, but is bond order is different to nitrogen and is very reactive (even explosive). The fact that lithium will react in nitrogen is unique, due to atomic size, not to reactivity, otherwise caesium would explode in nitrogen. It does not it is inert, as is sodium.
"And the sodium was gone".
You might want to find that. It shouldn't be left sitting around the fume hood.
Harry Bowman
*BOOM*
"And the dinosaurs are gone"
_this is a bill wurtz reference_
@@cezarcatalin1406 "🎶How did this happen?🎶"
how much weight (mass) that lithium and sodium that used in the first part?
What are the byproducts formed when lithium reacts with water?