What is one way that the pH of an acid can be determined?

Answer 1

By using red and blue litmus paper.

Answer:

There are many methods:

• Indicator papers - some as primitive as litmus and others supporting a graded change in colour over a pH range
• Titrations using indicator solutions
• pH meters

All of these will give you a pH value (usually 0-14) which indicates the negative of th log of the H+ ion (moles/liter) concentration in the solution.

Answer 2

pH is the negative log of the hydrogen ion concentration.

You first have to know decimal notation. This is a way of expressing mixed number using a decimal point. The position of the number behind the decimal point determines the inverse decimal power of the denominator of the fractional part. That is .1 means 1/10, .01 means 1/100, .001 means 1/1000, and so on. having an infinite string of such power fractions enables you to express any fraction.

eg. 23.87459503 means 23 plus 8/10 plus 7/100 plus 4/1,000 plus 5/10,000 plus, 9/100,000 plus, 5/1,000,000 plus 3/100,000,000

You then have to know scientific notation. This is a way of expressing very larger or very small numbers in decimal notation. What scientific notation does is relieve the significant digits from having to hold positional values. For example the number 5600000000000 needs all those zeros to show the true value of the number as position is important. In scientific notation this importance is expressed by simply stating the number of zeros. The number above in scientific notation is 56E11. The numbers right of the E simply stating how many zeros there are to be - or more accurately the number of zeros to the left of the decimal point.

knowing this taking, the base 10 logarithm of any number that is multiple of 1 and 10 only (anything more complex and for now you will have to look up finding logarithms yourself) is just taking the number after the E in the scientific notation form of the number.

knowing this you now have to know how to express chemical concentration. If you had 5 parts of hydrogen Chloride in one liter of water you could say that you have 5 parts per liter. If you use the proper scientific unit of parts (the mole) you can express this is scientific short hand [HCl]= 5, concentration of HCL is 5 moles/liter.

Now ph is only concerned with the concentration of the Hydrogen ion. (a simplistic explanation that will do for this question) And what ph is - is the negative log of the Hydrogen ion concentration.

So if you had a hydrogen ion concentration of .01. [.01]

In scientific notation that is [1.0E-2]

Taking the negative log of the Hydrogen ion concentration give ph=2

[.0000001]= [1E-6] ph=6

Answer 3

pH can be determined by doing a simple pH test using litmus paper. Neutral litmus paper will turn purple. Blue litmus paper turns red under acidic conditions. Red litmus paper turns blue under alkaline conditions.

Answer 4

you can use pH paper and the color it changes indicates the pH level

Answer 5

The pH of a solution is determined by its hydrogen ions. The more hydrogen ions a solution has, the more acidic it will be.

Answer 6

pH can be determined by pH paper or by pH meter

Answer 7

The pH of a solution can be determined by using an indicator, like litmus paper and phenolphthalein.

Answer 8

Using litmus paper.