[ELI5] Why alkaline metals explode when they touch water
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Some chemical reactions need heat to happen, others create heat when they happen.
These elements are super hungry to be more stable, and water is actually in a constant equilibrium between 3 charged states when a liquid. Negative (OH-), Neutral (H2O), positive (H3O+). So water is plenty ready to react with elements that have a charge.
And when these super hungry metals (which are positively charged) meet water, they find all the right form of water they need (the negative form), easily, rapidly. And the formation of these new molecules with the metal and water releases a ton of heat. It releases so much heat that it actually causes combustion.
And so, kaboom
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