The Scale That Runs Backwards

You'll learnwhy three bottles with the same number on the label can be ten billion times apart in acidity.

Hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide, all labelled 0.010 M, come out at pH 2.00, 1.70 and 12.00. Two things do all the work: what each formula unit actually hands over, and a scale that runs backwards. Twelve short steps; press Next for each one.

12 STEPS · 6 QUICK CHECKS · pH = −log[H⁺] · pH + pOH = 14 · 25 °C · v2

same label on all three · and the scale runs backwards

Before you start

What you're looking at

Three bottles that all read 0.010 M, and a pH scale running from acid red to base blue.

The question

If the labels match, why do the three pH values not?

Step 1 / 12