system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why does sodium dissolved in water (through table salt for example) not react like pure sodium does when it touches water?

If my basic understanding of chemistry is correct, the bond between Na and Cl in table salt vanishes when it is put into water. Wouldn't this leave pure atoms of Na floating around which are highly reactive with water? Probably I'm missing something obvious from one of my teacher's lectures that I zoned out in.
gpt
The reason that sodium is reactive is that is has an outer shell electron but would rather have a full outer shell as it is more energetically favourable. Substances generally have two ways of obtaining a full outer shell; they can gain electrons or get rid of them. Sodium does the latter and that process of getting rid of an electron is what makes it reactive. This leaves the Na+ ion, having lost its electron, more stable with a full shell.

NaCl contains the Na+ ion and Cl- ion, when added to water, the Na+ is pulled away from the Cl-, no real chemical change occurs.