Question

Compared with a basic solution at pH 9, the same volume of an acidic solution at pH 4 has ________ times as many hydrogen ions (H⁺).

Short answer

The pH of the acidic solution would have more number of hydrogen ions compared to the pH of the basic solution. The solution with pH 4 has 100,000 times more hydrogen ions than the solution with pH 9. But both the solutionsarein the same volume.

Step-by-step solution

Definitions of acidic and basic solutions

The solution that possesses a pH lesser than seven is known as an acidic solution. The solution that possesses a pH greater than seven is known as a basic solution.

Description of pH

The pH is simply defined as the negative logarithm of hydrogen ions. The pH is animportant laboratory parameter in the case of the preparation of buffers for scientific experiments. It is used to determine the acidity or basicity of the solution.

Comparison between pH 4 and pH 9

The pH scale starts from 0 and runs till 14. The middle value 7 is the neutral pH. At the neutral condition, the solution is not acidic or basic. An example of a neutral pH solution is water.

The pH value change of one digit corresponds to a ten times increase in hydrogen ion concentration in case of acidic conditions. The difference between pH 4 and pH 9 is 5. This corresponds to 100,000 times increase in hydrogen ion concentration in pH 4 compared to pH 9.