Question

Urgent 25 points!!

As part of an environmental science project, Jason tested the pH of the freshwater stream near his house. He obtained a pH reading (using a universal indicator strip) of 6.4.

Explain whether the water in the stream is acidic, basic or neutral by describing what you know about the pH scale. Indicate also whether the water has more H+ (H3O+) ions or OH- ions.Your answer should contain a minimum of 3 well-written sentences.

Answer 1

The water in the stream is acidic since the pH of the water is 6.4, and numbers under 7.0 on the pH scale is considered acidic. And because it is more acidic, it obviously has more hydronium ions than hydroxide ions. But if we wanted to make sure, [H3O+] = 10^-6.4 which equals a 3.98 x 10^-7 molar concentration of hydronium while [OH-] = 10^-7.6 which equals 2.51 x 10^ -8 molar concentration of hydroxide. And since 3.98 x 10^-7 is greater than 2.51 x 10^-8, there are more hydronium ions than hydroxide ions.