Lead
"What happens if I throw a ton of sodium into the Pacific Ocean?"
This reminds me of rumors some years ago that the Soviet Union had thought of dropping the Tsar Hydrogen bomb into the Pacific Ocean, and that Soviet researchers had conducted some experiments and threw some sodium into the Pacific Ocean.
Sodium reacts violently when it comes into contact with water, producing large amounts of heat and hydrogen.
What are the consequences of this?
What happens if I put a ton of sodium into the Pacific Ocean?
1. The maximum load capacity of An-225.
Sodium reacts quickly when it comes into contact with water, releasing a large amount of heat and making a "whoosh" sound.
If the amount of sodium reaction is not large, then there will be just some small explosions and sometimes some flames.
However, if the amount of sodium is large, it will cause a relatively large explosion after contact with water, and at the same time will generate a large amount of heat, which can cause a fire.
Specifically, 1 gram of sodium will release 40 kilojoules of heat when it reacts with water, while 1 gram of TNT will release 460 kilojoules of heat when it explodes, and the heat released after the reaction of 1 gram of sodium with water is only equivalent to the heat released by the explosion of 1/11 gram of TNT.
If 1 ton of sodium were to react with water, a huge amount of energy would be generated.
The energy of 1 gram of sodium reacting with water is equivalent to the energy of 1 liter of gasoline combustion, and the energy released by 1 liter of gasoline is equivalent to about one-third of the energy of 1 ton of TNT explosion, that is, the energy of 1 gram of sodium reacting with water is equivalent to the energy of 1/33 gram of TNT explosion, and the energy of 1 gram of sodium reacting with water is equivalent to the energy of 1/363 gram of TNT explosion.
The energy of 1 ton of TNT explosion is 4.19×10^9 joules, so the energy of 1 gram of sodium reacting with water is unimaginable.
So if you put 250 tons of sodium and react with water, how much energy will be released?
The An-225 is a Soviet-made heavy transport aircraft with a huge carrying capacity and is currently the largest aircraft in the world.
The maximum load capacity of An-225 is 250 tons, so how much energy will be released after 250 tons of sodium reacts with water?
250 tons of sodium reacted with water will release 4.19×10^9 joules of energy, so what does this mean?
What level of energy does this amount amount to?
2. The energy of 250 tons of sodium reaction with water.
In 1954, the Soviet Union exploded a Tsar hydrogen bomb with a yield of 58 million tons, the largest bomb in human history.
The energy of 250 tons of sodium and water reaction is equivalent to the energy of 1 ton of TNT explosion, and the energy of 250 tons of sodium reaction with water is equivalent to 250×4.19×10^9 joules.
The yield of the Tsar hydrogen bomb exploded in the Soviet Union in 1954 was 58 million tons, which was the largest explosion in human history.
The energy of 1 gram of TNT explosion is 4.19 kJ, then the energy of 1 ton of TNT explosion is 4.19×10^9 joules, the energy of 250 tons of sodium and water reaction is equivalent to the explosion energy of 1 ton of TNT, then the energy of 250 tons of sodium and water reaction is the explosion energy of 250 tons of TNT, that is, 4.19×10^9×250 joules.
So how much energy does 250 tons of sodium react with water correspond to the energy of a Tsar hydrogen bomb?
We can know from calculations that the energy of the explosion of the 58 million tons of Tsar hydrogen bomb is 2.4×10^17 joules, so the energy of 250 tons of sodium reacted with water is equivalent to 2.08×10^16 joules, what does this mean?
We can compare it by the energy of the explosion of the Tsar Hydrogen Bomb, which is the largest bomb in the history of mankind, and the energy of 250 tons of sodium reacting with water is only one billionth of the energy of the explosion of the Tsar Hydrogen Bomb, and this difference is huge.
In other words, although the energy of 250 tons of sodium reacted with water is huge, the impact of large-scale explosions is relatively limited, so it is obviously inappropriate to use the energy of sodium reaction with water as a weapon of mass destruction.
3. An-225 should be cautious when transporting risky goods.
If the energy of 250 tons of sodium and water cannot be compared to the energy of the explosion of the Tsar's hydrogen bomb in a mass explosion, then what will be the effect of 250 tons of sodium and water on nature?
If all 250 tons of sodium were put into the Pacific Ocean, the Pacific Ocean would no longer be the Pacific Ocean, and it would trigger a massive tsunami.
Because in this way, a huge amount of heat will be generated, which will cause the temperature of the surrounding sea to rise, which will cause a large-scale tsunami.
The maximum load capacity of the An-225 is 250 tons, but if 250 tons of sodium are transported, there are also some dangers, because after the sodium comes into contact with the air, it will also produce a violent reaction, which will cause a fire and even explode, so once it encounters an accident, the consequences are unimaginable.
Although the An-225 has a strong carrying capacity, it still needs to be cautious when transporting high-risk substances to avoid accidents and great danger.
epilogue
The reaction between sodium and water is a common reaction in chemistry, and this kind of experiment is also a common teaching content in various high school and university science laboratories.
Through this kind of experiment, students tend to become more interested in chemical reactions and deepen their understanding of chemical reactions.
At the same time, the reaction between sodium and water is also a huge energy, and it is also a very large kind of energy that we are exposed to in our daily life, and the release of this energy is often a risk that we should pay attention to.
Moreover, the use of weapons of mass destruction needs to be carefully considered, because if used incorrectly, it will often cause irreparable disasters.