Скачать или смотреть Rubidium The Explosive Alkali Metal You’ve Never Seen

Rubidium atomic number 37, symbol Rb is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal known for its extreme reactivity, especially with air and water. Its name comes from the Latin rubidus, meaning “deep red,” referencing the distinctive red spectral lines that led to its discovery in 1861 by Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff using flame spectroscopy — one of the earliest successes of spectroscopic elemental discovery. Rubidium is never found free in nature; instead, it occurs in minerals such as lepidolite and pollucite. The metal ignites spontaneously in air and reacts violently with water, forming rubidium hydroxide and hydrogen gas. Despite its reactivity, rubidium has valuable scientific applications, including atomic clocks, vacuum tubes, photocells, and research in quantum physics. While rubidium plays no essential biological role, its ions can mimic potassium in living cells, making it useful in biomedical research. Rubidium’s discovery helped validate spectroscopy as a tool for identifying new elements; its atomic transitions remain foundational in precision timekeeping.

Like and subscribe for more science learning videos — uncovering the hidden behavior of the elements one atom at a time!