SdJaCK&SaLLy

I have studied and now am writing an article on P.H. to help out people.

To understand the true meaning of pH of water would necessitate a thorough knowledge of basic chemistry. For the purpose at hand let us define acidity and alkalinity in terms of the numbers of ions found in the water. By ion is meant a charged atom of group of atoms. If there is an excess of hydrogen ions H+ ( that is charged hydrogen atoms ), then water is said to be acid. If on the other hand there is an excess of the negatively charged hydroxyl ion (OH-), then alkaline condition is said to exist.

- The pH scale, as used by it's originator Sorensen, expresses the concentration of hydrogen ions as the logarithm of the reciprocal of the normality of free hydrogen ions. Mathematically written this means

pH=...1.............................................. ...........................
log10 H-ion concentration in gram equivalents per liter

The scale is usually used on a range from pH o.o - 14.0 with three points of interest:

-pH of 0.0, the lowest point on the scale, represents a solution normal in hydrogen ions, that is to say the strongest acid.

-pH of 7.0 is the middle or neutral point at which there is an equal number of hydroxyl and hydrogen ions.

-pH of 14.0, the strongest alkaline solution, means the solution normal hydroxyl ions.


- When pH is written as pH 7.0 it is read as the pH is 7.0 To say that the PH is getting higher means that the solution is becoming more alkaline as the pH gets lower the solution is becoming more acid.

- The symbol pH itself has an interesting history. Sorensen the first to use this symbol proposed the use of the negative power of 10 or a power of 10 where p stands for any negative number. The symbol H for hydrogen was added. Since all chemical symbols are capitalized of the first letter the symbol became 10pH. This was reduced to merely pH though actually the should be inferior to the p, as pH

- It is easiest to credit typographers with the more easily written pH. Thus typesetters may have made their mark in chemical science!

Coming tomorrow to this article

- measuring pH, Hardness of water and more!