Hacker News Reader

A big chunk can jump back out at you, along the original angle of incidence. And it can really fuck up the pond's chemistry. So I endorse not throwing big chunks of alkali metal in ponds.

Putting a small lump in a bucket outdoors using a rope-activated rig sounds pretty reasonable, though.

Sodium in hot concentrated nitric acid is very impressive. As you say, outside with a string-activated rig. Short term, it does kill vegetation. But long term, it's fertilizer.

My school teacher chucked a golf-ball-size lump of sodium into the school swimming pool, then declared a wish to see the face of the guy who tests the pH of the pool the next morning.

Ha! My chemistry teacher did the same! Killed all the fish in the pond one time, or so he said.