Question

Before performing the titration of your unknown acid, your partner accidentally dilutes the sample by adding water. Consider how this error would effect the following aspects of the titration curve. Part A How would this error effect the volume of base necessary to reach the equivalence point?

Answer 1

It would not affect the volume of the base needed to reach the equivalence point

Step-by-step explanation:

Once the unknown acid has been prepared and placed in the conical flask ready for titration, adding water to it cannot alter how much base is needed to neutralise it. Adding water to the acid merely dilutes the acid i.e if 20 parts of acid were in say 100 parts of water now 20 parts of acid are in 300 parts of water because you added more water. You will still need the exact amount of base to neutralise the 20 particles that are still in the conical flask awaiting titration.

Adding water does not make acid particles increase or decrease, it just means the base particles will have to collide with a lot more water particles to interact with the acid particles which will slow down the reaction. So the rate of the reaction can be affected, not volume of base needed to reach equivalence point.