Assume that you are given a solution of an unknown acid or base. ...

Question

Assume that you are given a solution of an unknown acid or base. How can you tell whether the unknown substance is acidic or basic?

Accepted Answer

Hello everyone in this video. But given these four medals that were trying to see which of these metals can determine the solution of an unknown liquid in water or an acid. So, we're thinking about a displacement reaction over here, which the general reaction is A B plus C. Gives us a plus B C. So that's just the general reaction for a displacement reaction. So not taking into account each and every one of these medals. So for lithium, this displaces H two from. It's also going to kind of move this over. Okay, so let them display this H2 from water, steam or acid. Copper in the other hand cannot so just say cannot displace. We'll just have an arrow, meaning everything that we said, lithium can do. Copper cannot do. Then moving on To the 3rd 1 to this again, This displaces H two from acid. And the reason for this is because it's a greater electron donor and it can be able to supply electrons to our hydrogen hydrogen ion H plus to give us hydrogen gas. Alright. And lastly The 4th medal that we have here. This cannot displace again. I'll just put from above except for this above. Just means the same one as our copper. So these two are the same here. So looking at these four different metals now that we have kind of written out what it can be displaced with and what cannot be. So we can see that tin can be used to determine if the liquid is water or acid because if tin does react, then the liquid is water. But if tin does react, then the liquid is an acid. So 10 will be our final answer for this problem. Thank you all so much for watching.

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