this may be childs play for you pros but im no pro & this is fun to me.i like to tear apart lithium batteries & put the lithium strips in water. it really makes a great display!!! can anyone explain why it reacts as such ? oh yeah "never", never get it on wet skin, third degree burns are likely !peace out fellow pyros

Lol. I suggest taking a chemistry course or learning about valence shells.

It's a simple redox reaction.

Lithium is such a powerful reducing agent that Hydrogen is reduced from +I to 0 and forms H2 gas.
The hot hydrogen gas escapes almost immediately and is liable to ignite when it hits the atmospheres oxygen.

If you're interested in a really powerful reaction (and ever so slightly suicidal), you can try dropping a clump of lithium in a test tube of molten chlorate. But, I don't think that would be a very good idea, if my reading of your experience with these matters is accurate.

Lithium is a slut and really really doesn't care who has its outer electron, so the oxygen in water is like hey f*ck you hydrogen! That electron is more sexy than yours. So it kicks hydrogen out and shacks up with lithium instead. But oxygen is a pimp, and keeps one of its two hydrogens anyways, and so lithium, oxygen, and hydrogen have sex, producing a lot of energy, and the kicked out hydrogen goes away, and sometimes commits suicide by lighting itself on fire, monk-style.

Or if elemental porn isn't your thing:
Li (metallic) +H2O (liquid) -> Li+(aqueous) + (OH)-(aqueous) + H2 (gaseous)

Lithium is a slut and really really doesn't care who has its outer electron, so the oxygen in water is like hey f*ck you hydrogen! That electron is more sexy than yours. So it kicks hydrogen out and shacks up with lithium instead. But oxygen is a pimp, and keeps one of its two hydrogens anyways, and so lithium, oxygen, and hydrogen have sex, producing a lot of energy, and the kicked out hydrogen goes away, and sometimes commits suicide by lighting itself on fire, monk-style.

Or if elemental porn isn't your thing:
Li (metallic) +H2O (liquid) -> Li+(aqueous) + (OH)-(aqueous) + H2 (gaseous)

Hawt.

It's a simple redox reaction.

Lithium is such a powerful reducing agent that Hydrogen is reduced from +I to 0 and forms H2 gas.
The hot hydrogen gas escapes almost immediately and is liable to ignite when it hits the atmospheres oxygen.

If you're interested in a really powerful reaction (and ever so slightly suicidal), you can try dropping a clump of lithium in a test tube of molten chlorate. But, I don't think that would be a very good idea, if my reading of your experience with these matters is accurate.

youre going to make OP's head explode!

Lithium is a slut and really really doesn't care who has its outer electron, so the oxygen in water is like hey f*ck you hydrogen! That electron is more sexy than yours. So it kicks hydrogen out and shacks up with lithium instead. But oxygen is a pimp, and keeps one of its two hydrogens anyways, and so lithium, oxygen, and hydrogen have sex, producing a lot of energy, and the kicked out hydrogen goes away, and sometimes commits suicide by lighting itself on fire, monk-style.

Or if elemental porn isn't your thing:
Li (metallic) +H2O (liquid) -> Li+(aqueous) + (OH)-(aqueous) + H2 (gaseous)

LMAO

Nice explanation, but you need to balance yer reaction thar.

Lithium is a slut and really really doesn't care who has its outer electron, so the oxygen in water is like hey f*ck you hydrogen! That electron is more sexy than yours. So it kicks hydrogen out and shacks up with lithium instead. But oxygen is a pimp, and keeps one of its two hydrogens anyways, and so lithium, oxygen, and hydrogen have sex, producing a lot of energy, and the kicked out hydrogen goes away, and sometimes commits suicide by lighting itself on fire, monk-style.

Or if elemental porn isn't your thing:
Li (metallic) +H2O (liquid) -> Li+(aqueous) + (OH)-(aqueous) + H2 (gaseous)

I liked that, I would take a course by you,
"elemental rXXXn porno 1201"

Hey! don't diss elemental (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eELH0ivexKA)

Lithium is a slut and really really doesn't care who has its outer electron, so the oxygen in water is like hey f*ck you hydrogen! That electron is more sexy than yours. So it kicks hydrogen out and shacks up with lithium instead. But oxygen is a pimp, and keeps one of its two hydrogens anyways, and so lithium, oxygen, and hydrogen have sex, producing a lot of energy, and the kicked out hydrogen goes away, and sometimes commits suicide by lighting itself on fire, monk-style.

Or if elemental porn isn't your thing:
Li (metallic) +H2O (liquid) -> Li+(aqueous) + (OH)-(aqueous) + H2 (gaseous)

You should write a chemisty book for sale only in adult bookstores