Iron - Periodic Table of Videos

Iron and thermite. We have uploaded this video again higher resolution because the previous version was quite low quality.
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[@RichardT2112]

"Our students are far more responsible" still hilarious years later!

[@Christopher-N]

I was thinking on similar lines. _Their_ students are more responsible: they get the professor to do it. *:P*

[@caffeinepizza]

Why do I feel like the Professor was probably part of the welding the tram to the track joke?

[@deltasparklesix3941]

CaffeinePizza probably

[@Christopher-N]

I was thinking on similar lines. _Their_ students are more responsible: they get the professor to do it. *:P*

[@piotao]

Probably the Professor was the spiritus movens for the whole joke! :) I like Him!

[@lucasthesilliest]

i dont know

[@jakedee4117]

The reaction of sent off an incendiary device under public transportation now has an exciting new name, It's called terrorism. The reaction also has a new product, it's called a term of imprisonment.

2:17 seeing neil genuinely laugh is best :D

[@natebham]

man if my high school had done this i think alot more kids would be interested in science.

[@teologean5952]

+1

[@fawkyou2001]

natebham I would agree but high school is to late to start taking interest in science

[@natebham]

Barbed Two well true but you know what i mean. :)

[@ThePS4Gamer2014]

Hope he was my professor, this dude is awesome!

[@joshwhitsitt2381]

Me too

[@tantraman93]

The faculty and staff at University of Nottingham are doing a great job with this video series. This is my opinion and as this is the internet I'm sure there will be several negative comments in response to this post. Save your breath.

[@artisanrox]

Marks Higgerson omg. That's the silliest thing I've ever read. And I'm so offended. You need your tram wheels welded! (I apologize that it took me two months to post a negative reply to your comment, i will be more prompt in the future.)

[@tantraman93]

Thank you. Promptness is appreciated.

[@incrediblyundeniable2326]

(Heavy breathing) *Gasp* am I too late?!

[@hashtagjeff6727]

@@tantraman93 oh no, im way too late

[@Brunoenribeiro]

list of elements neil reacts to, until now: - helium - sodium - sulfur - potassium - chromium - iron

[@marcopohl4875]

and I always thought helium doesn't get a reaction...

[@doodlefox9837]

Molecule squeaky toys

[@bradstorch786]

Just so that everyone can calm down about the prank story - this one belongs firmly in the urban legend category. Some say it was students from UC, others say MIT. Some versions of the story say that there were multiple students who had to distract the driver long enough to weld the wheels, others say only one student was tasked with keeping the driver busy. This is the kind of thing that surely would have been reported in local (or even metro) newspapers, but no one has ever managed to find confirmation that this prank ever happened.

[@zolton01]

I WOULD ASK TO MAKE A MORE IN DEPTH VIDEO ABOUT IRON. mostly because of how it is used in seeding the universe and more importantly as to why one a star creates iron that it cannot do any more fusion. why is that>? but as the star explodes it can create heavier elements. just a question that hasn't been answered.

[@zolton01]

its been awhile since I have replied to this original post. its amazing to get the responses that I have. to everyone thank you. There is so much in this universe that I barely comprehend. and yet just the simple question of asking about such a common element would create such a dynamic response! I Love the periodic tables on KZbin.. and the professor is an amazing and creative individual. learning just about one, let alone all of the different elements and his team of students and staff always create a wonder that I have to ask more and more about. to them and you Thank You!

[@ChinnuWoW]

Probably because iron is the most stable element. Supernovas don't create heavier elements, they create degenerate matter. Neutron star collisions are what create heavier elements.

[@AleksandrPodyachev]

So the answer is that when you fuse two light elements, you get energy released. However, when you get to Iron, it gets to the point where if you want elements heavier than Iron, you have to put in energy to fuse it.

[@NoahSpurrier]

The problem with their reaction is that they did not protect the iron from oxygen in the air. When the iron came out the bottom of the flower pot it did so with a huge burst of white sparks. This was the iron burning as it hit the air. The fact that the iron had to fall several inches which causes it to splash thus increasing its surface area does not help either. The glowing blob you see at the end of the reaction is really a porous ceramic of iron oxide, not pure or solid iron. So their setup reduced the iron oxide by reaction with aluminium, but then the reduced iron was quickly turned back into iron oxide via a secondary reaction by burning the iron in the atmosphere. That produced even more heat and impressive sparks. All this is fine if the main product you are looking for is heat, but if you are trying to end up with a chunk of iron metal at the end you have to protect the iron from oxygen until it has cooled below the kindling temperature (temperature varies based on alloy and percentage of available oxygen in the atmosphere). So for future reference, allow the molten iron to flow without splashing and keep iron in an oxygen free atmosphere until cools. I use a blanket of Argon to keep the iron safe until cool. If you see white sparks at the end of the reaction then you did something wrong.

[@natem3804]

So the professors first experiment was making a fart bomb, i like it.

[@Lucius_Chiaraviglio]

I have heard almost the same tale about the tram, only it was in Boston or Cambridge (MA), with MIT students doing the dirty trick, and using a welding torch instead of thermite.

[@davidking1429]

That is one of the best Thermite demos I have seen. The way the whole retort stand glowed afterwards :O

[@fft2020]

Teaching what the the world is made of one element at a time. Thank you periodicvideos !!!

[@Scrap5000]

I love these guys & this channel!

[@OmniMani]

This channel all about heating things up and I love it

[@chicoktc]

I remember one very interesting chemistry class in high school where we drop a very small amount of Na in a bucket of water. Very cool reaction!

[@DudokX]

Pete Licence is so great at making chemistry so interesting I just love to listen how he explains things in videos.

[@havebrainsmust]

The way the Professor talks about his introduction to chemistry, makes me think I'm right there as his nephew or grandchild, hearing a story from his child hood.

[@warpdriveby]

I had an O-chem professor that told me the story of "some rowdy graduate students" who placed a large bottle of high molar Butryic Acid on a bridge over a gorge about .5 mi from town. I wasn't clear if it fell off and broke open or was left open on the bridge. Apparently they caused a remarkable plague of vomiting, migraines, and people so overwhelmed by stench that a panic erupted about a terrorist gas attack, but this was 1965, way before 911, or the Tokyo Subway nerve gas murders. I had the exact same understanding, "oh...the kids were YOU!" All my chem teachers were cool actually.

[@seterry]

I love how he has dog toys in his office. XD

[@willg46]

awesome as always! Thanks

[@BigBrothersEnd]

It is so hilarious when the Professor takes one of his structure model toy and a plush sound comes out of it!! 4:41

[@jg6582]

I strongly believe this video should be called "Thermite", because there is actually no information about iron itself being taught besides that it oxidizes.

[@nubeees]

Jared Graber That and how to weld a tram to its tracks as a practical joke...

[@TheDavo10001]

Near the end they talk about its uses in living things (haemoglobin) and in alloys for construction.

[@snarky_user]

Not true. The video primarily taught that it reduces.

[@Brunoenribeiro]

you believe on it so strongly you might be WELDED to it :)

[@findingcover]

Great videos!

[@chukotkapeninsula5924]

I wanna bet Martyn would do this prank on the tram himself 😅

[@mwhitby502]

Tumultuous step forward is the best line in this classic video

[@enderstar5017]

Pun 26 Iron can create sparks and fire and chaos, yet it's a crucial part of our lives. What irony.

[@kuskus_th13]

EnderStar501 this pun has the same number as iron on the periodic table

[@wastingyourtime05]

puns are the cure for cancer

[@Bman-1970]

Currently doing small hydroponics in basement. I'm slowly learning how the Iron in my tap water is affecting how my lettuce uptakes the nutrient solution. Never thought I'd be looking up all the elements associated with growing plants and seeing all the different interactions they have on one another.

[@spinseffing]

That is the coolest tie I've ever seen!!! I must have!

[@CLChan-er6jf]

I like to ask a question about the thermite reaction : do we need to do some pretreatment work for the aluminum powder? As we know a aluminum oxide layer is rapidly formed once the aluminum is exposed to air , do we need to do something to Aluminum powder to make sure the oxide formed on the Al powder will not stop the strong reaction of Aluminum and Iron oxide? Thank you .

[@Blinkwing]

I can understand why Martyn is so excited with complex chemistry. I love working on projects implementing it and structural analysis of complexes!

[@armineprox]

4:47 reminds of the lion king where one hyena is like "mufasa!" and the other is like "ooooooo". I can picture someone being like "iron" and he would be like oooooo!!!

[@Serostern]

Iron is by far my favourite element

[@Calcprof]

The thermite welding of a trolly car to the tracks was done at Carnegie Mellon years ago.

[@natedawww]

Can you do a video about rust, specifically? About the different types, why water accelerates oxidation of iron, etc. Also, an episode specifically explaining what "burning" really is would be nice as well. Thank you for all you do! :)

[@jasonmorgan661]

I wanna pull the copper from enough crabs through electrolysis to make a lump of crab copper😅. As far as iron oxide types of rust some works better from some sources then others...there's two types of iron I know of and it's hematite magnetite ....

[@janovewaldner1]

After the reaction, where did the aluminium oxide go? it became part of the molten metal? or did it fly with the smoke?

[@LardGreystoke]

It should have dropped through the flowerpot along with the iron. When it cools it should be a white or transparent crust. You wouldn't be able to tell them apart while they're still glowing.

[@janovewaldner1]

@@LardGreystoke So you might be suggesting that the aluminium being lighter will end up on the top of the molten metal? Once cold, will it separate easily or will it be "welded" to the iron?

[@LardGreystoke]

@@janovewaldner1 I'm no expert so I hope one would pop up. My assumption is that the aluminum, being in oxide form, would not behave as a metal and would not weld to the iron.

[@BritishBeachcomber]

The aluminium oxide rises to the top as slag. It was explained in the video that aluminium bonds more strongly to oxygen then iron does.

[@11Kralle]

I never heard the "just swapping oxygen"-line in school, yet it is a very catchy way to describe a redox-reaction!

[@trezzh4]

not any redox reaction involve swapping oxygen, cause there are many other oxidizers such as F, I, Cl...

[@11Kralle]

trezzh4 I stand corrected - the expression was witty though!

[@joemalola05]

You guys are so awesome, I would love the honor of studying with you..

Great video. I love the Professor's stories haha.

[@aggonzalezdc]

Fun fact: MIT students (for anyone outside the US thats the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the best technical college in the country, and one of the best in the world) were the ones who started the welded metro car prank back in the 1930s. In that one they just did something to distract the motor man for a while and then set off thermite reactions to weld the car to the rails. One of the 4 students involved would later become a dean at the college!

[@MasterStulf]

Never in my life have I been interested in chemistry but now that I saw these videos.

[@7heAre7s]

If he was my Chemistry teacher, I would have got straight A's. Really interesting stuff.

[@star-du6vp]

I would love to see one have your videos talking about the copper oxidizing in great detail like the statue of Liberty

[@michaelgonzales8071]

I'm curious to know if they kept the iron from the thermite reaction, and what does it look like after it has cooled? Just curious.

[@VladislavFomitchev]

Martyn! you are the coolest chemist I know! It seems that I have a very strong reaction to your videos!

[@PieterG159]

Dutch captions are not bad at all, quite literal during the whole video but easily understandable for dutch audience.

[@McVidsAndTutorials]

my first reaction wax NaOH + NH4Cl and heated. Though it was quite hard to smell the ammonia coming out, it still was fascinating, because it was my first reaction.

[@marcustulliuscicero9512]

Don't let the fine Bros hear about your reactions.

[@afthefragile]

Ooh Iron + Sulphur was my first ever chemistry reaction too!

[@BritishBeachcomber]

There is a practical application of thermite. They use it to weld lengths of rail track together on high speed lines.

[@crosstross]

I learn more watching one video then an entire school day!

[@BenjaminFranklin2u]

Great video.

[@ayzhatheoneandonly]

👀

[@0Emster0]

My first chemistry experiment was the same :') the difference is I did it in October 2015

[@chattux]

professor is a legend!

[@Wolfie123123]

I love how he has a huge box of those Tetrahedral models.

[@fintatarta]

I want the tie! And the umbrella too! (in another video) Oh, beautiful video BTW :-)

[@ChaplainDaveSparks]

By the way, it would be nice if you could incorporate Tom Lender's song where he SINGS the entire periodic table into one of your videos.

[@thalesofthewell]

this channel taught me that chemistry is all about burning stuff

[@Sclunger]

I learned more from watching these videos than I've ever learned sitting in school and listening to boring teachers.

[@piotao]

Fun fact: in close proximity of magnetar (few thousands kilometers should be enough), there will be so strong magnetic force, that it will pull iron atoms so they will be ripped off from blood, causing hemoglobin decomposition and probably quite painful death in seconds.

[@timar03]

I SO WANT TO DO SUCH A PRANK! AND I ALREADY LAUGEHED AT THE LOOP! THE WELDIGN JUST MADE IT PERFECT!

[@HayTatsuko]

Iron: The Star-Killer.

[@SouthwesternEagle]

Finally! An intelligent comment on this mindless comment board of hatred. The sad thing is that you, I, and maybe a few thousand other people in the entire world actually know about astrophysical stellar nucleosynthesis. I wish the general public had some intelligence instead of just a select few who are all on the internet. I grew tired of teaching my teachers.

[@WaltRBuck]

Every time I use my cast iron pan while camping, I look up at the stars. It's a strange and oddly profound experience each time.

[@jg6582]

How do we know iron kills stars if we can't get close enough to our own star to know whats under the massive fields of plasma? The sun-spots are the only window into the sun we get to be able to actually see inside.

[@thomas40444]

SouthwesternEagle American education system for you. Here in the UK, I learnt about nuclear fusion when I was 13.

[@SouthwesternEagle]

thomas40444 13? Really? My class learned about it at the end of third grade at age 9. We must be doing something right after all. :/

[@Edgewalker001]

When I was at the pathology lab at our local university hospital I was apparently the only student in my class that had read the file on picric acid. It is used in the staining of tissues for microscopic examination and it's also really, REALLY explosive. So basically, all the other students had been lugging around a 1 liter bottle of concentrated explosive compound without caring about the risks at all. Considering that picric acid was used in high explosive ammunition before TNT...

[@nurlatifahmohdnor8939]

The theory of Dr. H. W. Singer. 1st paragraph. 1 This is negative factor in equation. 2 If growth is to be self-sustaining, the rise in output much proceed faster than the diluting effects of population expansion. 3 Otherwise per-capita output may be static or falling, despite a seemingly large rate of growth. Nowadays everybody want to use scientific terms to show off. Page 85

[@travistunney79]

Martyn Poliakoff CBE if you where my chemistry teacher in school I would have straight A+!!! Keep the videos coming. And there is another website testtube that has more videos to. Awesome videos I make jewelry and rifles you guys are awesome!!!

[@BarneySaysHi]

Iron and sulfur heated in a testtube, then add acid. We did that experiment at school as well. The ONLY times we were ALLOWED to smash a testtube to get the contents out lol.

[@CHodeslol]

I'm curious, why do I always see people burning thermite in flower pots? is it just because they're cheap and have the hole in the bottom or is there more to it than that?

[@theq4602]

When iron reacts with fluorine is the iron. trifluoride a lot like rust? Or is it like the corundum on aluminum?

[@BrianGallas]

That tram story made me LOL!

[@jlspma]

4:11 ''so you can see lots..lots of pisses of iron'' xD

[@Zwank36]

4:45 my dog would get excited over those dog toys too.

[@patrickwellerwrites]

when I am watching these videos I feelas if I am doing the experiment with you guys!

[@aghamdahri7714]

Great sir

[@cateattingmonster0]

How come I've never learned or experimented this kind of cool stuff in my chemistry class.

[@im0b]

did the prof eventually talk about crabs and their copper blood flow? i would love to see that episode!

[@professorsogol5824]

The light rail system that ran through Berkeley was the Key System, and it stopped service in the late 1950's. So if true, the Professor's story is a very old one. I don't believe such a prank would be possible on the BART system.

[@kovacsgyorgy5043]

Woaaah epic screensaver timing!!! The 2 computers 2:00

[@sammieschouten8701]

IKRR??

[@AlonsoRules]

Iron 56 - the most stable nucleus in the Universe

[@LithiumChicken]

@mV33rs you'll have to look it up, i have tried it, but the proportions aren't the same. you can use Cu(II)O or Cu(I)O, that is, CuO or Cu2O. be warned, however, that because the difference in reactivity is much greater between aluminium and copper than between aluminium and iron, the reaction proceeds much faster, quite often explosively. rain's all very well, but an umbrella will do little against a hail of molten copper. have fun!

[@terranfoley6030]

I was hoping to here more about the metallurgy of steel and how iron changes it's crystal structure from BCC to FCC at 912 °C

[@JeremyHeiden]

I have a question I might have overlooked someone already asking/answering, I was wondering if a thermite reaction can be used to, let’s say smelt metals or at least start the process instead of using hours and hours of electricity or fossil other fuels to slowly ramp up the process? Would a thermite reaction, when used in a controlled environment, kickstart the entire process and save hours as well as fuel?

[@photolabguy]

awesome!

[@nicoheckens1]

Is glycerin sometimes used as a catalyst for this reaction? I thought I remember learning that in school the other day...

[@jnthnbush]

lol, he gets excited when ever he hears Iron. Mmm, Iron, schwinggg

[@Edgewalker001]

Also it's in the cells lining your stomach after eating something containing iron, in your blood in its bound state to transferrin, another protein responsible for transporting iron to where it's needed, and in your liver, stored inside ball like structures of the other protein called ferritin. Iron gets around a lot. We even have specific proteins designed to help transferrin keep free iron bound in case of for example bacterial infection, as bacteria usually love iron. It's like Scooby snacks.

[@flutrimetemi9482]

Iron is my favorite element can you make more of this videos please that involve iron

[@JayMannStuff]

My first experiment was baking soda and vinegar. Or at least the first one I can remember doing on purpose. My least fond memory was highschool, where we were showing how to smell certain chemicals in lab to see if the liquid was acid or not. I got a bit too close to the bottle containing formic acid... bad, bad, bad. Never smell formic acid - it's painful and disorienting. Taught me to be very careful around chemicals very quickly.

[@Marrawr9000]

The screen-saver in the background at 1:22 freaked me out before I saw the second monitor

[@gricka31]

Liking the poster on Martyn's door; "Don't smoke you may die"

[@sharg0]

Isn't it time for a new video on iron? I especially miss the mentioning on how much the physical properties can change depending on what it is alloyed with and how it's treated (alloy, warm forming, cold forming and heat treatment) which has made it the key to much of today's technology.

[@snateraar]

You can use various oxides, google for things like 'manganese dioxide' or 'copper oxide' thermite :)

[@MR5er1]

5:33 that's my monitor, i'm waching this with that

[@TheLameBucket]

You guys need to do a lecture tour! Travel to different universities and give lectures! I'd show up.

[@Masterplan79th]

@slypsi Actually, Aluminum is more technically correct since elements are named by their discoverer. The first man to discover Aluminum and describe it as an element was Humphry Davey and in the first paper published on the subject he called it Aluminum. The Royal Society of London objected to this name citing all recently named elements being called -ium, but conveniently forgetting all the other endings, and decided to call it Aluminium instead. America is only different by chance, from 1926.

[@maskedmarvyl4774]

"Every time I hear about iron I get really excited". A true chemist.

[@isnickninja]

My teacher did a thermite reaction with the same exact setup. The only problem was the road he did it on (behind our school) wasn't level. When the molten metal came through the pot it actually melted through the stainless steel container and into the road!

[@PoliticalMuffin]

I love his tie.

[@KingCulta]

Agreed!

[@k.c.lejeune6613]

What was that sound at 4:42 when the Professor pulled out that molecular model??