Question

Which of acid x [hx] = 10−3 m ka = 1.32 × 10−6 acid y [hy] = 10−3 m ka = 3.47 × 10−3 is the stronger acid? 1. acid x is stronger. 2. acid y is stronger. 3. i would have to know if x or y is a strong acid. 4. they have the same strength?

Answer 1

2. acid y is stronger.
The Acid dissociation constant (Ka) is a measure of how strong an acid is. The larger the value, the stronger the acid. Since in this problem, the molarity of both acid x and y is the same with a value of 10^-3 M, we can ignore the molarity and look at only the Ka value for the acids. Since acid y has the larger value of Ka, it is the stronger acid, so the answer is option "2".
On a side note, both acids x and y in this case would be considered weak acids, the Ka value for a strong acid would be approximately 100 or larger.