← 🧪 Chemistry · usually met in Std 7-10
Acids give away hydrogen ions, bases accept them, and the pH scale says how far a solution leans either way. Together they cancel out into salt and water.
An acid in water releases hydrogen ions; a base accepts them, usually by releasing hydroxide ions instead. The pH scale runs from 0 to 14, with 7 neutral. Below 7 is acidic, above is basic, and each step is a factor of ten — pH 3 is a hundred times more acidic than pH 5, not slightly more.
Bring an acid and a base together and they neutralise each other, producing a salt and water. That is the chemistry behind an antacid tablet for an upset stomach, and behind adding lime to soil that has turned too acidic for a crop. Strong and concentrated are not the same thing: strength is how completely the substance ionises, concentration is how much of it is in the water. A dilute strong acid and a concentrated weak one are different situations entirely.
Want to see it moving? Search YouTube for “Acids and bases” ↗ — we send you to the search rather than to one video, because a link to one video eventually rots.
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