Question

during world war 2, metallic sodium was used to manufacture certain types of bombs. when the war ended, the united states military had a great deal of leftover sodium metal stored in metal drums or barrels. the original plan was to sell the excess sodium, but when it was advertised for sale and the barrels were inspected for shipment, it was discovered that the containers had broken down and weakened so much that no carriers would accept and transport them. this left the u.s. army with a perplexing problem: how to dispose of 9,000 tons of sodium in unstable containers! the army decided to dispose of the barrels by dumping them into a lake. in a gif from a newsreel published in 1947 (above), you can see one of the barrels rolling down a cliff onto the frozen lake. holes were made in the drums, allowing the sodium to mix with water. when the barrels hit the water, they created huge plumes of gas and spectacular explosions. figure 1 provides models of sodium (na) and water (h₂o) to help you better understand and explain how they might react with each other. figure 2 is an unbalanced and incomplete chemical equation for this reaction. figure 1 models of sodium (na) and water (h₂o) 1. another substance that would react with water in a very similar way as sodium is — ○ beryllium (be) ○ magnesium (mg) ○ aluminum (al) ○ lithium (li)

Explanation:

Lithium (Li) is in the same group (Group 1 - alkali metals) as sodium (Na) in the periodic table. Elements in the same group have similar chemical properties. Sodium reacts vigorously with water, and lithium, being in the same group, also reacts with water in a similar way. Aluminum (Al) is a metal but in Group 13, magnesium (Mg) is in Group 2, and beryllium (Be) is in Group 2 as well. These elements do not have the same reactivity pattern with water as sodium (Group 1 elements).

Answer:

Lithium (Li)