Characteristics:
Sodium is a soft, silvery-white metal. It is soft enough to cut with the edge of a coin.
Freshly cut surfaces oxidize rapidly in air to form a dull, oxide coating.
Sodium burns in air with a brilliant yellow flame.
Sodium floats on water, because its density is lower than water’s. It also reacts vigorously with water – violently if more than a small amount of sodium meets water (see video on left) – to produce sodium hydroxide and hydrogen gas. Sodium reacts with water more vigorously than lithium and less vigorously than potassium. Explosions occur when the heat generated by the sodium-water reaction ignites the resulting hydrogen gas.