Contributor: Hannah Brooks. Lesson ID: 12191
If you have a swimming pool, fish tank, or vegetable garden, you may be familiar with the pH scale. Heartburn might clue you in as to acids, too. What does the pH scale measure, and what is its value?
Lemons are a citrus fruit, which means that they contain a high level of acidic juice.
That is why we are often told to avoid biting into lemons, because acidic juice eats away at the enamel covering your teeth.
Substances can be classified as acidic, basic, and neutral. Maybe you have heard some of these terms in TV commercials or in doctor's offices.
Acids are solutions that have a high concentration of hydrogen ions, which carry a positive charge. An ion is any atom that has a charge, either negative or positive.
Examples of some common acids are acetic acid, which is found in vinegar, hydrochloric acids, which can be found in your stomach, and sulfuric acid, which can be found in car batteries.
Acids are an integral part of chemical interactions, but they can also be very dangerous! They are very corrosive, which means they break down substances through chemical reactions.
Bases are kind of the opposite from acids — they have low hydrogen ions and high hydroxide ions. Hydroxide is just a bond between one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom.
You can find both of those elements in the periodic table of elements!
Bases include ammonia, which can be found in Windex, and sodium hydroxide, a cleaning product found in Magic Erasers! Bases can be just as dangerous as acids, causing damage to property and skin through chemical reactions.
If you guessed "equal," you are right! Neutral substances have a good balance between both types of ions. Water and blood are two good examples of neutral substances!
We use terms like acid, base, and neutral to talk about solutions, but we can also refer to these solutions using the pH scale. The pH scale is a measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions or acidity. It ranges from 0 to 14, and includes most common solutions.
Acids range from 0 to 6, and bases from 8 to 14. Substances around 7 are defined as neutral.
Consider the following questions:
In the Got It? section, we will learn more about different acids and bases.