Most metal dipped in water sinks, but why does sodium float?

First of all sodium doesn't float in water, rather it ignites. Practically sodium will float on water as the density of sodium is 970kg per metre cube (so it is less dense than water). read more

First of all sodium doesn't float in water, rather it ignites. Practically sodium will float on water as the density of sodium is 970kg per metre cube (so it is less dense than water). read more

Water has a density of 1g/cm3. Now using the equation, try out any other metal and if the density you get is bigger than 1, then obviously, the metal is more dense and so will sink as the water doesn't have enough particles to support the weight force exerted by the mass of the metal. read more

Lithium, sodium, and potassium are all very light elements, and metals that are made purely of them will have low densities. In fact, lithium has the lowest density of all solid elements, #"0.534 g/cm"^3# compared to water with #"1.000 g/cm"^3#. They also all react violently with water, so even though they float, they won't stay there for very long. read more