this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2023
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Not dumb at all! In order to not write an even bigger wall of text, I assumed some things, like everyone already knowing that in water, a pH of 7 is considered neutral. This is because that solution would have an equal amount of acidic ions and basic ions, each with a concentration of approximately 10^(-7) moles per liter. But with a different solvent like ammonia, the change in auto dissociation constant means that to get an equal number of acidic and basic ions, you would only need a concentration of 10^(-15) moles per liter.
So, it would change a lot of the standard practices in a lab, like making buffers, neutralizing solutions, etc. Since it's Saturday and I'm doing this all off the top of my head, I don't know what other implications there might be, but basically a lot of things that chemists and biochemists take for granted would need to recalculated. Acids would be more acidic, bases more basic, etc. In ammonia, even water would be a fairly strong acid!
The chemistry doesn't really change, but a lot of the standard practices would need to be done differently (including the way we make buffers, measure pH, and the range of pH that a solution could be).
Thanks a lot for you explanation !
I knew water have a pH of 7 and is neutral and after reading your response i very very vaguely remember our teacher telling explaining what pH meant in middle school but a reminder was definitely needed. The rest is extremely interesting so Again, a huge thank you !!!
I'll likely go read about chemistry for dummies because i feel a bit ashamed of my limited knowledge with basic chemistry.
No need to get ashamed! Lots of people had bad experiences in chemistry classes at a young age and don't remember much beyond "it was hard, it didn't make sense, and I was really bad at it." So, you're in good company!
This is at least partly because chemistry was traditionally a "weed out" class, meaning it was used to determine whether people "had what it takes" to succeed in the sciences. As a result it was usually taught in a way that made it harder than it needs to be and a lot of people decided not to pursue STEM careers/education because chemistry felt too hard. But lots of times , it felt too hard just because it was taught poorly (on purpose).
Basically, don't be afraid to get back into chemistry! Even though I'm in chemistry education, I don't really have any great book recs for someone starting from scratch, as I'd want to recommend a textbook that's not necessarily easy to work through in your own. However, The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum and Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks are both really fun to read and relatively accessible. To get more of a well rounded, academic understanding I would highly recommend taking a class at a local college (community college if you're in the US, to keep the cost down, but there are probably similar options in other countries). It would be more work and deadlines, but trying to educate yourself about this stuff can be really hard and intimidating, and if you take a class, you'll be much more likely to stick with it and get something out of it.
Thanks for the books recommendation. Where i live, I don't think there's any way to learn chemistry at a school other than going to middle school again, which I doubt I'd be even allowed.
There's probably a book or an app that can teach the basics of chemistry. Most people i know are so illiterate about chemistry that they mix household products and create toxic gases.