• Question: What would happen if you made a shower head out of Francium?

    Asked by Deez Biscuits to Eleni, Hannah, Jenny, Oli, Steven on 11 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Oliver Charity

      Oliver Charity answered on 11 Nov 2016:

      Hi Biscuits,

      You would probably get radiation sickness, and it would violently explode.

      Oli

    • Photo: Hannah Bolt

      Hannah Bolt answered on 11 Nov 2016:

      Hi Biscuits,

      Francium is in group 1 of the periodic table. Other members of this group, like cesium and rubidium, form a hydroxide on contact with water and also produce hydrogen gas. Cesium reacts pretty violently with water (due to the quick production of hydrogen gas). As we go down the column on the periodic table to rubidium, Rb has a bigger reaction . Therefore, I’d expect francium to have a really violent explosion. Even before you added water, francium is very unstable and highly radioactive – so it’s probably not the best material to make a shower head out of!

      Hannah

    • Photo: Steven Street

      Steven Street answered on 12 Nov 2016:

      Hi Biscuits,

      I can’t add much more to what the others have said! Just attempting to make a shower head out of francium would be challenging. Apparently only 20-30g of it exist on the entire planet, and it’s impossible to obtain pure as it has such a short half life (22 minutes).

      Steve

    • Photo: Jenny Batson

      Jenny Batson answered on 12 Nov 2016:

      Hi
      I don’t think you would be able to as its the most unstable naturally occurring element! If you could it would explode!
      Jenny

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