How does Potassium and Calcium react in water? with Andrew Szydlo #scienceexperiment #chemistry

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]This precise experiment used to be demonstrated by Michael Faraday here in the 1840s with potassium which was then a newly discovered metal. Please sir and that's potassium reacting with water there. You saw a little bit of a lilac flame. It catches fire by gum. It's dangerous and it splatters. Now if we if we come back to that in a second I will now show you calcium reacting with water. And let's do that over here. We can do that actually. Let's do it over there. So you that may that I will now show you calcium. Now calcium reacts with water, but it is much less dangerous. And what we're going to do here, we're going to pour in some pieces of calcium. And I'm going to show you what's going to happen. Here goes out.

[00:00:44]This is water and this is calcium. Pour in a few lumps. And it starts to fizz.

[00:00:49]Very shortly it'll start to fizz and it gives off a gas which is called hydrogen in very, very large amounts. And there it is. And we can set fire. And as you see, if we can have the lights down, you see a beautiful brick red flame. And that brick red flame is being caused by hydrogen, which is generated from calcium as it reacts with the water. And you can have no doubt about that. Was a very large amount of hydrogen coming off.