When Alkali Metals Meet Water

acoustic rap, intimate close-mic vocals, stripped-back acoustic production, tender and heartfelt, slow ballad, fingerpicked acoustic guitar · 4:20

Listen on 93

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
Lithium slips into the basin, soft little fizz,
A whisper of bubbles — nothing more than this.
Metal meets water, hydroxide is born,
Hydrogen rises, a gas freshly formed.
Single displacement, the metal swaps in,
Shoving out hydrogen, letting it spin.

[Chorus]
Metal mais água, fogo e gás,
Watch the flame jump, watch it blaze and pass!
Металл и вода — гремит, искрит,
Down the family the fury ignites!
Lithium fizzes, sodium zips,
Potassium flashes lilac on its lips!

[Verse 2]
Sodium zooms across the water like a skater on ice,
Melts to a silver bead, burning orange, catching light.
The heat that it gives off is enough to combust
The hydrogen gas — that's the chemistry, trust.
Potassium's louder, it pops into flame,
Cesium can shatter the glass whence it came.

[Chorus]
Metal mais água, fogo e gás,
Watch the flame jump, watch it blaze and pass!
Металл и вода — гремит, искрит,
Down the family the fury ignites!
Lithium fizzes, sodium zips,
Potassium flashes lilac on its lips!

[Verse 3]
Back in eighteen-oh-seven, Humphry Davy took a jar,
Melted salts with electricity, pulling metals out so far.
Electrolysis cracked them loose, sodium and potassium too,
He singed his eyes with chlorine gas but kept on pushing through.
He named the elements, reckless but precise,
A scientist chasing sparks, paying the price.

[Bridge]
Keep them under oil, never let them breathe,
Pyrophoric metals catch fire with the greatest ease —
That means they ignite from air alone, no spark required,
So seal them away where no moisture gets inside.
Cuidado, amigo, não toque na água,
Осторожно, друг — это очень опасно!

[Verse 4]
Mendeleev's table said reactivity would grow
Down the alkali column, row after row —
And here's the proof, a flame that won't lie,
Each metal more frantic as it says goodbye.
Lithium, sodium, potassium descend,
Each one more violent until the trend's end.

[Verse 5]
It's all about the outer shell, one electron to lose,
Bigger atoms, farther shells, the easier the cruise.
Shielding weakens the pull the nucleus can give,
So the valence electron leaves more freely, wants to live
Somewhere else, bonded tight to an oxygen's embrace,
That's why francium — rare as it is — would win this race.

[Chorus]
Metal mais água, fogo e gás,
Watch the flame jump, watch it blaze and pass!
Металл и вода — гремит, искрит,
Down the family the fury ignites!
Lithium fizzes, sodium zips,
Potassium flashes lilac on its lips,
Cesium cracks the glass to bits!

[Outro]
Hydroxide and hydrogen, that's the whole deal,
A table predicted exactly how it'd feel.
Metal mais água, химия жива —
Chemistry's alive, it always was, hurrah.

← Light from Chemistry: Glow Sticks and Fireflies | Gunpowder and the Alchemists' Surprise →