Sodium undergoes a reaction with water.

A liter of warm water in large pyrex vessel, covered with fine mesh stainless steel screen, is on a stool close by in-floor vent hood.  Add a few drops from the phenolphthalein indicator bottle.

Using the long forceps, pick out a pea size lump of sodium metal from the mineral oil in the small beaker. Wipe off the lump on the dry paper towels. With the vent fan running, lift the edge of the screen and drop in the sodium metal. Replace the screen and get back.

The sodium will from a hissing ball of molten metal, which bounces...

What it shows:

Eggs have a reputation for being quite strong under compressional loads. You won't believe your eyes when you see how strong they actually are — an egg can support a person!

How it works:

An egg shell is a composite material, but primarily calcium carbonate, "nature's ceramic."¹ We assume the ultimate compressional strength of the material to be about the same as bone (which is mostly calcium phosphate, but never mind): 170x10⁶ N/m². The diameter of a "large" chicken egg is about 1.75" and the typical shell...

10 cm microwaves are used for the demonstration of travelling and standing waves, reflection, interference, refraction, diffraction, absorption, polarization, tunneling, and waveguides.

... Read more about Microwave Properties

What it shows:

Perturbation by colliding atoms in a high pressure gas result in the broadening of emission and absorption lines. This is clearly seen in the sodium D (589nm and 589.6nm) lines of a high pressure sodium lamp.

The broadening in frequency width is dependent upon the separation of the perturbing particles (Novotny 1973) by

∆ν ∝ r^-n

With n=2 the broadening is due to the coulomb field of an ionized atom or electron; this is the linear Stark effect. With n=3 the interaction is between neutral atoms of the same type; this...