Molecular Musings: Acids and Bases
Here is my Molecular Musing on acids and bases. Hope you learn something new, and enjoy!
Here is my Bibliography
AmerChemSoc. (2018, November 08). What Are Acids & Bases? | Chemistry Basics. Retrieved November 03, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnbS56HQbaU
Bergwerf, H. (n.d.). Carbon dioxide. Retrieved November 03, 2020, from https://molview.org/?cid=280
Bodner Research Web, .. (n.d.). Acid-Base Equilibria. Retrieved November 03, 2020, from https://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genchem/topicreview/bp/ch17/ph.php
Eddy, D. (n/d). Chemistry 104: Analysis of Commercial Antacid Tablets. Retrieved November 03, 2020, from http://www.chem.latech.edu/~deddy/chem104/104Antacid.htm
Khan Academy, .. (2020). Acids and bases | Chemistry library | Science. Retrieved November 03, 2020, from https://www.khanacademy.org/science/chemistry/acids-and-bases-topic
The Organic Chemistry Tutor, .. (2020, July 09). NaHCO3 + HC2H3O2 – Baking Soda and Vinegar. Retrieved November 03, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRUlE2850F0
Professor Dave Explains, .. (2016, January 11). Acids and Bases, pH and pOH. Retrieved November 03, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNXvokAcSuE
Study.com, .. (2020). The reaction of citric acid and sodium bicarbonate is written as H_3C_6H_5O_7(aq) + 3 NaHCO_3(aq)… Retrieved November 03, 2020, from https://study.com/academy/answer/the-reaction-of-citric-acid-and-sodium-bicarbonate-is-written-as-h3c6h5o7-aq-plus-3-nahco3-aq-na3c6h5o7-aq-plus-3-h2o-l-plus-3-co2-g-cup-a-mass-of-cup-and-water-59-49g-mass-of-sodium-bicarb-1-01g.html
That’s a lot of information there! Wow! It’s really impressive how much time and effort you quite obviously put into this presentation, and I can see how much research you must have done. It also seems like you really understand what you are talking about and not just regurgitating info from the internet. The only thing I would say is that, because there are some pretty complex ideas that you talk about, you were going a little fast for me, and I would have liked some extra, slower explanations in parts like when you are explaining how this applies to baking a cake. I also liked your “Why does it matter” part because you had some really valid points about spotting fake information, but besides that and the other collective knowledge related reasons you gave, do you have any ideas on how this could affect someone in a regular scenario? (Maybe when they’re baking a cake? :))
Yeah, I would have liked to explain it in more detail, but I was a little pressed on time. Thanks for the feedback though!
Regarding your question, other than the reasons I gave, it’s mostly just little subtle things like, say, if you were baking you could be more creative in the acids or bases you use if you knew other edible safe things that were acids or bases, you could try substituting them I guess. Also lf you needed to neutralize and acid or base spill, but baking soda or vinegar weren’t nearby, you could be more resourceful with your newfound knowledge and find a different thing you know is an acid or base. On a simpler note, it’s nice to be able to understand what people are talking about more when they talk about these chemistry things.
Thank you for the thoughtful and detailed comment!
-Ben
Awesome job Ben! I really understood you throughout your presentation because I personally thought you spoke clearly and slowly which helped get all your information across very effectively. In the presentation, you said that the meaning of the “p” in the “pH” scale isn’t known. I’m wondering why you think that the “p” isn’t known? Has it just been lost in translation in between different languages? Overall, I thought you made an amazing presentation and represented it very well!
I’m glad you found my speaking clear, since I worked hard on that. As for pH, it’s a bit controversial, but most people agree that nowadays it kinda stands for power. (pH — the power of the hydrogen). We’re not sure if that’s what it originally meant though. Thanks for the thoughtful and detailed comment!
-Ben
Great video! Like you said, before all I really knew was the factual part about it that to neutralize an acid you need to add a base and vice versa, but I never knew the “why”. You explained it well and you seemed like you genuinely enjoyed the topic as well. You explained at the end how it applies to baking a cake, is that what you are planning to experiment on in grade ten? If not, I was wondering what other things or tests you could run with this topic in the future.
-AJ
I’m glad you learned something! I have been considering baking a cake. Another thing I didn’t mention that is an acid base reaction is a baking soda volcano, which could be fun, especially given it’s one of those classic science experiments. Thanks for the comment and feedback!
-Ben
Great job there on the Acid Talk Ben. Great timing that it was also after our chemistry unit so that it was easier to understand. However, the way you explained it also made things really easy to understand. Overall, it looks great in terms of the information given and the way that you presented it towards the audience. A huge star I have is just how well the presentation was organized, clean, and I really enjoyed the animations coming in when you were talking, and I think these really solidified and backed up your key ideas. I also liked the in-depth examples you gave at the end. A small critique I would give to your talk is that your voice seemed a bit monotone throughout some places during the presentation, but fantastic job I’ve gotta say. 2 questions I have for you is: What do you mean by you don’t know what p in pH means, since I’m a bit puzzled by how scientists creating a scale don’t have a solid definition of what p means. The second question is there any other amphoteric compounds that we know of? Anyways, great job on the talk Ben!
I’m glad you enjoyed it, and I hope you learned something from it too. I, as well, worried that it may have been too monotone at times, so thanks for the feedback.
Regarding the first question, what happened was a danish chemist came up with the name pH for measuring acidity, but never really explained what it stood for, and scientists just continued using pH. Glen asked a similar question, so please see my reply to him for more info.
For your second question, some other amphoteric substances are amino acids and proteins but they are not self ionizable like water. This basically means they can act as an acid or base, but they cannot do it with themselves like water can.
I hope this clears things up a little, and thanks for the feedback!
I really liked how you used different tones of voice throughout the presentation to keep us engaged and make it more interesting and you also did a good job emphasizing the important points. To be honest it was a little bit confusing in a few places but it would have been really hard to make it clearer in 8 minutes so it isn’t a big deal. Overall, you did a really good job with the talon talk. I was just wondering if you had any ideas for how the points that you talked about could be integrated into the education system for example; what grade would this be taught in, or in general, what would be covered by the teacher.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for the feedback about the pacing. I assume it would be covered in chemistry. Since I haven’t see much about it yet, I’m guessing it would be part of grade 10, 11, or 12 chemistry, but I feel like if an elementary or middle school teacher wanted to just cover it a little, that could probably happen sometimes, it just never happened for me. I’m guessing the teacher would cover about as much as I talked about, though maybe a little less since they need time to talk about other things too.