"Now, just for fun, I chopped off a thin slice of it... and put it on some toast."

NileRed : The metal is stuck and it gonna be more annoying than I thought The metal : K

It's neat how central that metal is to our nervous systems and our health in general.

"So I bought this from Russia..." is how the legends start

My chemistry teacher used to have some decades old potassium laying around since the 70s and apparently before the school took it away, he used to have demonstrations outside where he would throw a chunk of potassium into water and it would explode, like “a hand grenade”.

My chemistry teacher (early 90s) showed us what happens when a little piece of lithium is dropped in a breaker of water, from behind a screen. It fizzed and popped. Then he did the same with some sodium and it REALLY fizzed and popped. He then did the same with a piece of potassium and the whole thing exploded. Very cool 🙃 He noted that he wouldn’t do it with caesium as he quite liked the chemistry lab building... I recall the metals were stored in oil-filled jars to keep them away from the moisture in the atmosphere.

One thing I've learned from your videos is the importance of being careful with seemingly innocuous substances. It doesn't take much to generate a reaction!

I've watched this video multiple times in the past but I never noticed the small ignition at 0:43 Really showcases how pottasium can ignite while in contact with air and constant mixing!

NileRed: “Okay, so it’s apparently stuck and it’s going to be a bit more annoying than I thought.” I fully expected the hammer to fall… My disappointment is immense.

Me eating banana and drinking water: “Guess I’ll die”

1:02 Nice cook on the Potassium, very moist and tender inside, full of flavours. Perfectly seasoned, a stunning dish.

you know its character development too early when nilered does this in his lab instead of an open area later on in his videos

Nigel: " I chopped of a thin slice of it and..." Me: "Chew on it! Please Chew on it!" *Nigel Drops it in water and it explodes" Me: "Yeah I'm glad I'm not a chemist..."

"Time to butter my toast at Nilered's house!" *explodes and dies*

The teacher wondering what I'm doing with a dirty bar if butter and a huge bucket of water.

I always get the vibe to use potassium and sodium crackers in festives

My teacher was demonstrating how potassium reacts when it makes contact with water, but the science department gave her a bottle with a huge chunk of it and she even said "I'm so tempted to chuck this in but it'll destroy the class" everyone for the next 10 minutes were asking her to do it, she never did

NileRed few years ago: you shouldn't cut old potassium metal in case of superoxides mix with unreacted metal and produce violent fire NileRed now: cuts it

My brain: this is not butter we are not putting it on toast Also my brain: *forbidden b u t t e r*

this reaction would be even more insane with smthg like caesium and with larger amounts of it

Everytime NileRed says "Now just for fun" he fulfills some of my fantasies.

Nile: 'Honey, why does the sandwich taste different?' His wife: 'We ran out of butter so I used the one in your lab.'

At first I was like "I wonder what it'll be like to chew it" then I saw what happens when it reacts with water and instantly changed my mind I don't wanna know what it'll be like

My high school physics teacher used to chuck a wad of this in a giant fishbowl filled with water. One day he put too much and the whole bowl exploded - I don’t think he does demonstrations anymore 😂😂

A metal that is soft and blow up when put in water. Just unimaginable. Edit: What is truly unimaginable is how someone bought up how Islamic God doesn't exist on a chemistry video in my reply section.

Are we gonna talk about how it made a small spark and smoke when Nigel was trying to get it out the tube? Lol

Now that’s some sparkling water! ✨

0:53 looks like British food

My chemistry teacher demonstrated with this before. This stuff is so reactive that you can’t touch it with your fingers otherwise the moisture of your hands will cause a reaction.

This man has to have incredible discipline to not just toss the whole thing into some water for a bigger boom.

finnaly we found it, the forbidden butter

That little puff of smoke when trying to remove it from the container was a warning. Heavily corroded potassium auto ignites when handled roughly.

It's widely known at my uni that some years ago at the chemistry department (which is where I study) there was a pretty big explosion (no one died or anything but some people had to go to the hospital) and like half a lab was destroyed. From what my general chemistry professor says it was actually potassium that caused the explosion.

I legit thought he is going to spread it onto a weird slice of bread

“It should at least slide out” the bottle and potassium metal: nah

Does this mean you can mold this into something like how a clay would?

1:27 Nigel: “I chopped off a thin slice of it…” My Brain: “…and ate it”

I appreciate that your videos are over a minute long, so that the normal KZfaq player is used. I absolutely hate the YT shorts player because I can't rewind.

"Now just for fun, I'm going to try to make Francium... and feed it to my neighbours

the way the knife went thru it and hit the table, ughhhh that was so satisfying

Potassium's reaction to water is so unstable that even the small fragment with high surface area plus the moisture on Nile's tool at was enough to self-ignite. That's insane.

"Kris! Get the banana!" "Potassium"

I want this guy as my chemistry teacher

I love that it almost combusted when he was trying to get it out.

REALLY surprised it didn't arrive with an oil coating around it. In school, that's how our teacher kept lithium and potassium, to revent them from reacting with the oxygen in the air/water vapour or exploading if any liquid water touched it.

Nobody: ah yes soft metal. Me: KRIS GET THE BANANA

The weird butter becomes angry butter in water. Understood

Anybody ever notice you can always get interesting, fascinating and unique things from Russia?

Me: Mom, can we get some butter? Mom: We have butter at home. The Butter at home:

ah yes, motion tracking potassium. exactly how i thought i would start my day.

"What I have here is something that I bought from Russia..." such a fun sentence, and just listening to it out of context brings up so much fun possibilities

"Damn, this potassium looks a bit dirty. I'd better go wash that off."

Imagine if someone got potassium metal as a gift from someone and tries washing it because it looks “dirty”

"Kris Get The Potassium." *It's Like Weird Butter. "Banana."

i think the olden day wizards and other myths were just people throwing potassium at each other and yelling fireball

Nobody: My eyes: danger My brain: f o r b i d d e n b u t t e r

Whenever words "Russia" and "experiment" will come together, the shit is gonna be good

When the chemistry teacher at my school still worked a a uni many years ago, he did a demonstration of alkaline relations like he always did. He got a small piece of sodium and put it in a glass conic flask with water, and held it up for the class to see as it reacted. However, the flask he had used was wider on the bottom and narrower on top that usual, causing a gas buildup to happen inside without anyone noticing. So when he put another now smaller piece of sodium in, the spark ignited the gas and caused the flask to explode in his hand. Nobody was hurt, but I do believe a student's phone was destroyed. A video of the incident exists online somewhere iirc.

Potassium is always doomed to be thrown in water

Nile red has the safest and the best firework by his side😂

Its really dangerous to cut potassium like that, especially if it's not new. Potassium superoxide (KO2) may form in oxide layer. When it is being pushed into potassium, they may react and self-ignite. (KO2 + K = K2O + Heat) You can actually see some smoke at 0:42, it may be the result of this reaction occurring on his putty knife. If that large piece caught fire, it would be a disaster.

*Butter + Creeper = Potassium.*

only nile can casually have some potassium metal sitting on this desk

"something i bought from Russia" secretly brought some uranium

kris get the banana potassium

This literally would help Science students understand better ✨

Doctor: you need more potassium. Guess i gonna burst into flame.

Niles neighbors: Is Nile making something explode again? Normal.

"Kris, get the potassium block" "Potassium"

The queen would be proud of all that potassium you got there

We did this in our chemistry class but the pop it made was so loud that people in other classes came out to look (I live in Australia so our classrooms are all in different buildings around the place, plus we did this outdoors too)

Now if only Bananas exploded like that when you put them in water, Tropical Island Wars would be much more fun!

It's always so strange to see how these elements react to things while knowing that potassium for example is an essential nutrient.

I like my potassium metal medium rare

“What I have here is something I bought from Russia” *The beginning of every catastrophic disaster that has happened*

When he sliced it it felt like those realistic cakes that people cutted

When he cut off a thin slice I definitely thought he was going to spread it on toast.

My favorite thing about potassium is something I learned rather recently. It's the name. By taking the ashes of burnt wood or other plants in a pot, mixing in and then evaporating away the water, a useful material was created called potash (very clever naming). The mineral substance created was useful for various things in ye olde pre-industrial times. Eventually, when people were getting around to discovering elements, a new one was discovered that was found in large quantities in this potash. This great genius effectively named it potashium, but decided that "potassium" sounded much more latin and science-y. That's just so... charming. Like, "Hey I found a new element, I got the sample from my basement, I shall call it basmentium."

Watching you cut that was weirdly satisfying.

Group 1 elements are so cool

"Kris you did it" "Potassium"

1:35 well that looks like mighty fun.. how about dropping a big block into a public swimming pool... at night when it's closed obviously..

The Army fr keeping their sights on him

Imagine someone bits this thinking it's some exotic blue cheese

“Nile Get The Potassium”

Nile get the banana Potassium This joke will not die, not under my watch

My mind during this video: SPIT ON IT!!!

I remember doing this in school with sodium

"Kris Get The Knife" "Insert Sans Reference"

Kris get the banana! Potassium.

I thought that the thing he was cutting in the thumbnail was a fish LOL.

I knew it, explosive butters exist..

"Now, just for some fun..." - The prelude to every bad idea ever.

All great stories start from "What I have here is a something I bought from Russia"

This is how potassium butter blows up in water as an explosive butter.

That potassium butter is what bananas in my house looked like.

"What I have here is something that I bought from Russia" Amazing introduction as always 😆

My chemistry teacher showed us the reactivity of each metal in the 'Reactivity Series of Metals' - first in water, then in acid. It was something he was happy for us students to try out, too, albeit under direct supervision. Also: The packaging of your sample was really odd. Normally it's sold in a small jar of oil, in which the metal is completely submerged, to prevent oxidation and similar reactions. I always found it satisfying to cut into what looked brown and sludgy, to reveal this lovely silvery metal underneath.

When he said the metal was stuck in the tube, i expected him to hit it with a hammer.

Imagine someone throwing a huge piece of potassium in a lake on the first of the new year. Now fishes are gonna see the new year too.