Question

stomach acid has a pH of 1 and tomatoes have a pH of 4. How many times stronger than tomatoes is stomach acid?

Answer 1

We must take into account the definition of pH, and this represents the concentration of H+ ions([H+]). It can be defined with the following equation:

`pH=-\log \lbrack H^+\rbrack`

To determine how many times the acid is stronger than the tomato, we must calculate the concentration of H+ ions for each pH value, to do so we clear [H+] from the previous equation:

`\lbrack H^+\rbrack=10^(-pH)`

Now we substitute each pH value into the equation:

`\begin{gathered} \lbrack H^+\rbrack_(StomachAcid)=10^(-1) \\ \lbrack H^+\rbrack_{\text{Tomatoes}}=10^(-4) \end{gathered}`

Therefore we will have to:

`\frac{\lbrack H^+\rbrack_(StomachAcid)}{\lbrack H^+\rbrack_{\text{Tomatoes}}}=(10^(-1))/(10^(-4))=(1)/(10^(-3))=10^3=1000`

Therefore, stomach acid will be 1000 times stronger than the tomatoes.