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I'd actually go out on a limb and say there probably is some sodium in there. That reaction with water is quite too violent for magnesium, I would think. Magnesium is, however, not a stronger reducing agent than sodium at high temperatures. Sodium, however, is volatile and will boil off from the reaction site if enough heat is supplied. Reactivity series can be cheated by Le Chatlier's principle. This heat is probably being provided by the reaction of the hydroxide portion of NaOH with the Mg, forming Na2O, MgO, and H2. The flames gushing out of the pot are probably burning hydrogen and some sodium vapor. That pot looks to be aluminum, which is a horrible choice, since it reacts with sodium hydroxide. While impressive, the amount of sodium formed is probably very small and and it is finely divided, trapped in the debris. The reaction with water was far too fast for any significant amount of Na to be present. Splashing paraffin in is a horrible idea. Anyone who has ever worked with concentrated NaOH knows that it's nasty and molten NaOH, which you could expect to find in the reaction mix will instantly blind you if it gets in your eye and cause some pretty horrible wounds if it gets on your skin. The paraffin is also flammable, which introduces further hazards. A stream of chilled argon would be far superior, but if you can get that, you probably wouldn't be needing to make sodium, especially like this.

No, it was ANFO that was used in the Oklahoma city bombing. By itself, ammonium nitrate is a horrible explosive. Even with fuel oil added to improve the oxygen balance, it still needs a very large initiator charge. ANFO is not something you'd want to use on the battlefield, but it is good for blasting because it's cheap and effective. Good explosives by comparison are glyceryl trinitrate, trinitrotoluene, pentaerythritol tetranitrate, etc. The newspaper is generally not a reliable source, especially for anything science related.

Deeeelicious misonformation. Ammonium nitrate is a crappy explosive. It is extremely hard to detonate pure, and even mixtures like ANFO need a large initiating charge. Some fertilizers come with coatings on the prills, though this is usually to aid wetting (as in sulfur, which normally repels water) or keep the pellets intact during transport. Waxy coatings are nothing more than a fuel if you were to try to detonate the stuff and would probably make it work slightly better. Also, ammonium nitrate prills intended for ANFO blasting (still used for mining operations) are not as compact as fertilizer prills (as dense as possible for cheaper shipping). They are slightly porous, which allows them to collapse as the detonation front propagates through the mixture. Fertilizer prills are harder to detonate because they are solid. When heated to the point of decomposition (and especially above that, as would be reached in a bunsen flame), it is much more sensitive to detonation. Using careful temperature control, N2O production is still done industrially by the same process. The sideproducts NO and NO2 are then thoroughly scrubbed from the mixture. I suspect that these would be formed in much higher proportions the hotter the reaction was. Wikipedia lists phosphates as catalysts for the formation of purer N2O at lower temperatures.

No. Please learn what this means and how to use it: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/file.php/3258/T357_1_ie001i.jpg "Galvanic series" or "electromotive series" are helpful things you might punch into google, which I will not do for you. Granted, everything is an equilibrium, so transiently and randomly, some magnesium might make a few sodium ions into sodium metal, but they will immediately give up those electrons to water or back to the magnesium ions that were formed.

Hermann is way ahead of you

Ditto for Magnesium, which keeps turning up as well, unless of course, you have sodium to waste.

Chalk isn't usually chalk anymore IIRC. I think it's almost always gypsum ([ce] CaSO4*2H2O [/ce]) nowadays. I precipitated mine from boiling CaCl2 solution using sodium carbonate, but only because it's an enormous pain in the arse to try to get CaCl2 back out of solution. If you have the time, you can dissolve eggshells or seashells in acid, filter, and add carbonate to precipitate CaCO3. Good quality limestone is pretty pure CaCO3. The common impurities are MgCO3 (form a complete solid solution, IIRC) and iron oxides.

You should talk to YT about this stuff This is one of his specialties. He's probably asleep right now, so I'll give it 4 or 5 hours before he responds.

Ibeamer, you might also want to note that the reaction gets hot, extremely hot if you use strong lye and lots of aluminum foil. That is, however, a decent way to get hydrogen. DIY Electrophilic aromatic substitution: Required: -Test tube or similar small, clear container -Dropper -Sodium bromide (NaBr. This is available as a bromine reserve starter for hot tubs/ spas) -An acid (HCl, H2SO4, H3PO4, or any reasonable strength acid is acceptable. Sodium bisulfate is marginally acceptable, but stronger acids produce better results) -Hydrogen peroxide solution (3% is available in most food stores as an antiseptic. Other concentrations are available if you know where to look) -Chloraseptic spray (I'm not sure if this is available outside of the US. Make sure the bottle says it has phenol in it) A tiny spatula of NaBr is placed in a test tube or any clear container that you can observe the reaction in. Add a few drops of hydrogen peroxide solution. I used 6.5%, but 3% will work as well. Just use a little bit more if you're using 3%. The solution is acidified. I used a few drops of concentrated HCl, which produced a red-brown solution of bromine in water. Even sodium bisulfate (with a little water) will work, but the mixture appears yellow because the concentration of bromine is lower. The mixture is diluted a bit with water, so there is some room to see the reaction above any undissolved solids, and a few drops of chloraseptic spray is added. The chloraseptic spray is a source of phenol, a good example of an activated aromatic ring. The color of the solution fades as the bromine reacts, and a white precipitate forms. This precipitate is 2,4,6-tribromophenol, which has an intense antiseptic smell. With the red-brown solution, the drops of chloraseptic formed a thick white layer upon hitting the bromine water. With the dilute, yellow solution, there was a bit of delay before much precipitate formed, which clouded the solution, instead of forming a compact glob. The quantities used here are extremely small, and the few milliliters of waste (containing at most a few milligrams of tribromophenol) can be disposed of in the trash. Happy experimenting