Final answer:
The leveling effect of water ensures that in Beaker A, a strong acid and base form a neutral salt, while in Beaker B, a strong acid with a weak base forms an acidic salt. This effect influences the pH of the resulting solutions, depending on the strength of acids and bases involved.
Step-by-step explanation:
The leveling effect of water refers to water's ability to limit the apparent strength of strong acids and strong bases in an aqueous solution. When you add a strong acid and a strong base to water, as in Beaker A, they react to form water and a salt. The salt formed would indeed be neutral since the strong acid and base completely dissociate into their ions and then neutralize each other.
For Beaker B, when a strong acid is added to water containing a weak base, the resulting salt tends to be acidic. This is because the weak base doesn't completely ionize in water, unlike the strong acid. Consequently, there are more hydrogen ions (H+) present in the solution, making it acidic.
Thus, for salts formed in water, their solution's pH depends on the relative strengths of the originating acid and base. Salts from strong acids and strong bases give neutral solutions; salts from strong acids and weak bases tend to be acidic; and, conversely, salts from weak acids and strong bases tend to be basic due to hydrolysis reactions.