Using this grid. you can easily see how we convert from H to OH, OH to pOH, pOH to H, and so on!
Don't know why we do all of this? Well, I'll explain.
When converting from pH to pOH you simply use the equation pOH + pH= 14. This is because the pH scale is 14 and the amount of hydroxide ions you have will always be counterbalanced by the amount of hydronium ions to equal 14.
We convert between H and OH with the natural ionization rate of water over the H or OH concentration to find the amount needed.
The H concentration is 10^-pH because moving up or down by an increment of 1 on the pH scale equals 10 times more acidic or basic of a solution. And that is measured by the H/OH concentration.
I hope those explanations helped you remember why we are using these equations!
Marie, thanks for the descriptive post! I like how you explained why we actually need to convert between pH and pOH. I had never really thought about it before, and found your explanation very helpful and clear. I also like how you talked about how the H+ concentration moves up and down the scale in increments of ten. I think others will find this post very informative!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lilly. This post was very informative and I really liked how you explained why we use the equations. Thanks for sharing!
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