[Verse 1] Two salts dissolved, swimming loose in the water, Ions untied, every cation's a drifter, Silver's bored of nitrate, sodium's bored of chloride, Dance floor chemistry — everybody swap your partner tonight AB plus CD, that's the simple design, Trade the back half, keep the front in line, New pairs form, A-D and C-B, That's double displacement, a tidy little decree [Chorus] Partnertausch, partner swap, watch the water turn white, Niederschlag falling down, solid out of sight, AB and CD, hand in hand they divide, Silberchlorid drifting to the floor, like snow that won't melt, just collide Partnertausch — it's the oldest dance in the lab, Ions swap partners, the clear little stream starts to turn drab [Verse 2] Eighteen-thirty-nine, a man named Talbot, Painted paper with silver, a shadow would plot, Light struck the salt and darkened the grain, Silver chloride, silver bromide, portraits held in a stain, A century of cameras ran on this very trick, Mix nitrate of silver with a pinch of chloride, watch it click, The cloudy white curdle, old chemists called the "horn," Where light-shy silver salts decided a picture was born [Chorus] Partnertausch, partner swap, watch the water turn white, Niederschlag falling down, solid out of sight, AB and CD, hand in hand they divide, Silberchlorid drifting to the floor, like snow that won't melt, just collide Partnertausch — it's the oldest dance in the lab, Ions swap partners, the clear little stream starts to turn drab [Verse 3] Not every pairing wants to leave the solution, There's a rulebook called solubility, no need for confusion, Nitrates are friendly, dissolving with any date, But carbonates get shy, and sulfides rarely wait, Lead sulfide, black as coal, sinks down to the base, Calcium carbonate turns a kettle to chalky lace [Bridge] In your kidneys, calcium meets oxalate somewhere deep, A tiny stone gets born while you're fast asleep, In your kettle, hard water's calcium carbonate, Builds a crusty mineral coat you never did orchestrate, Vorsicht — some of these salts carry weight, Lead and silver ones are toxic, so study them, don't take the bait [Chorus] Partnertausch, partner swap, watch the water turn white, Niederschlag falling down, solid out of sight, AB and CD, hand in hand they divide, Silberchlorid drifting to the floor, like snow that won't melt, just collide Partnertausch — it's the oldest dance in the lab, Ions swap partners, the clear little stream starts to turn drab [Outro] Next we meet the acids, the bases, and the gas, Some double swaps hide those too, as they come to pass, Aber heute, merk dir nur the falling solid trick, AB plus CD — swap the halves and watch it stick, Tschüss, kleiner Chemiker, the water's turning clear, Niederschlag, Partnertausch — see you, atoms, next time here
← Displacement: Elbowing In | Redox: The Great Electron Handoff →