Chemistry
Neutralisation & salts
Acid meets base: they balance each other out, producing salt and water.
What you need first
After a big meal your stomach burns, and a heartburn tablet helps within minutes. What happens there is chemistry: a base balances out the excess acid. This reaction is called neutralisation, and it is behind a surprising number of everyday helpers.
Acid plus base
If you add a base to an acid bit by bit, the two cancel each other out. The moves towards 7. The scale runs from 0 to 14, and exactly in the middle sits 7, the neutral point. The reaction always produces two things: a salt and water. You can remember it as a trade: acid plus base gives salt plus water.
Salt is more than table salt
In chemistry, salt is not just the white powder on your fries. Salts are a whole class of substances, and every neutralisation produces one of them. The most famous example: hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide solution react to form water and sodium chloride, our table salt. Which acid and which base react decides which salt ends up dissolved in the water.
Neutralisation in everyday life
The heartburn tablet contains a mild base, usually baking soda or magnesium hydroxide, that neutralises excess stomach acid. In the garden, gardeners spread lime on acidic soil so the pH rises and plants grow better. Sewage plants also neutralise wastewater that is too acidic or too basic before it may flow into the river. And remember: experiments with real acids and bases belong only in class or under adult supervision.
Exercises
0 of 6 solvedTime to try it yourself. You can't break anything, every attempt counts.
What is always produced when an acid reacts with a base?
What pH value does a solution have when acid and base exactly balance each other out?
Hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide solution produce water and our table salt. What is its chemical name?
A heartburn tablet contains a mild … that balances out the excess stomach acid.
An acidic solution has pH 3. Adding base raises the pH by 4 steps. What pH value does the solution have now?
Match each situation to the fitting measure or result.
Where this leads