Acids, Bases, Universal Indicator and pH Scale

By: Faisal Abu Issa

pH Scale

People use the pH scale to measure the acidity or the basicity. From 1-7 is acid and from 7-14 is a base, 7 is neutral its neither acid or basic.

Base

A base is a substance that accepts hydrogen ions. It also donates electron pairs. Bases are not as harmful as acids people use bases a lot and sometimes eat or drink bases.

Acid

Acid is substance that reacts to bases, acids can be identified as tasting sour, reacting to metal such as calcium, . An experiment we did in class about acids was when we got acids and bases and dropped a couple of drops in them from the universal indicator. That changed the color and we had to compared it to the pH scale to see what it turns into.

Universal Indicator

The universal indicator is used so people can drop a couple of drops in something that they are not sure of, if it was acid or alkalis. If the color was a level of 0-3 it would strong acid. If it was from 3-6 it would acid, 7 is just neutral. From 8-11 is base and from 11-14 is strong base.

Tooth Decay

Acidic foods: Corn, blueberries, cranberries, bread, noodles, beans, butter, ice-cream, beef, bacon, lobster, fish, shrimp, oil, sugar, beer, whine, pepper, vinegar, drugs and coke or coffee. If you eat so much acidic food and don’t brush your teeth your teeth will become so weak and either melt or fall off. We did an experiment in class with an egg and we kept it in vinegar for a long time period, so when the teacher (Mr. Isom) tried to pick it up it broke into pieces.

Alkalizing food: All vegetables except for corn, lentils, olives and winter squash. Apple, banana, lemon, grapes, chestnuts, chili pepper, cinnamon, ginger, curry, Veggie juices, fresh fruit juices and mustard.

These are some of the alkalizing and acidic foods for more information visit http://www.angelfire.com/az/sthurston/acid_alkaline_foods_list.html