Science Memes

14420 readers

1745 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
Keep it rooted (on topic).
No spam.
Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.

Research Committee

[email protected]

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

543

Is water an acid or a base? (lemmynsfw.com)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

45 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago (4 children)

H2O is neutral PH, and so answer is no. But then water tends to have a bunch of shit disolved in it. So answer is yes.

A self-contradicting proposition based on ambiguity of definition of water, of all things. This statement can be used to make HAL explode.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

If you take into consideration the self-ionization of water, it's both, at the same time.

2 H~2~O -> H~3~O^+^ + ^-^OH

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

AFAIU, it doesn't change the PH neutrality.

I understand that they self combine/react again? But is that reaction still water?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Autoionization and the reverse reaction are constantly happening in water, and when the reaction is happening at the same rate forward and backward the system is said to be "at dynamic equilibrium" (aka, stuff is happening, but there's no net change)

In pure water, the equilibrium concentration of hydronium and hydroxide are equal, so it's said to be neutral. At room temperature, that equilibrium concentration is approximately 1*10^-7 moles per liter, which gives a pH of 7 (since pH is defined as the negative log _10 of hydronium concentration)

load more comments (2 replies)