3b2 Strong Acids and Weak Acids
Be careful to say what you mean.....Strong or Weak / Concentrated or Dilute
When you are given a drink of orange squash, most people will ask if you would like to have it strong or weak. In a chemistry sense, this is wrong. They ought to be asking whether you like it concentrated or dilute because they want to know if you want a large amount of orange squash and a little bit of water or a little squash and a lot of water.
The words “strong” and “weak” refer to the properties of acids. A strong acid is totally broken down in water. A good example is hydrochloric acid. There are no HCl molecules in a bottle of hydrochloric acid. They have all broken down to form H+(aq) and Cl-(aq).
With ethanoic acid, many of the molecules stay as CH3COOH with only a few becoming CH3COO- and H+. Ethanoic acid is a weak acid.
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