Two Reservoirs, Two Directions

You'll learnwhy a buffer needs both a weak acid and its conjugate base, and what each half of the pair actually absorbs.

One drop of strong base sends pure water up five pH units. The same drop into a buffer moves it four hundredths. Nothing is shielding the buffer; it just contains something that eats what you add. Twelve short steps; press Next for each one.

12 STEPS · 6 QUICK CHECKS · HA ABSORBS OH⁻ · A⁻ ABSORBS H⁺ · BOTH REQUIRED · v2

two tanks · one for each direction of attack

Before you start

What you're looking at

Two beakers taking the same drop of strong base: one is pure water, the other is a buffer.

The question

The drop is identical, so what does the buffer have that the water does not?

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