What is the range of the pH scale?

What is the range of the pH scale?

• A. 0 to 14
• B. 0 to 7
• C. 1 to 13
• D. 2 to 11

Answer: (A)

pH is a measure of how acidic or basic a solution is, defined by pH = -log10[H+]. Because it’s a logarithmic scale, each unit change represents a tenfold change in hydrogen ion concentration. Under standard conditions, the conventional range runs from 0 to 14, with 7 being neutral. Values below 7 indicate acidity, values above 7 indicate basicity. This full span from near 0 to near 14 lets you describe very strong acids as well as very strong bases. The other ranges fail to include parts of the spectrum: they cut off either the acidic end, the basic end, or both, so they don’t represent the complete scale.

pH is a measure of how acidic or basic a solution is, defined by pH = -log10[H+]. Because it’s a logarithmic scale, each unit change represents a tenfold change in hydrogen ion concentration. Under standard conditions, the conventional range runs from 0 to 14, with 7 being neutral. Values below 7 indicate acidity, values above 7 indicate basicity. This full span from near 0 to near 14 lets you describe very strong acids as well as very strong bases. The other ranges fail to include parts of the spectrum: they cut off either the acidic end, the basic end, or both, so they don’t represent the complete scale.