Which condition did you change?
Labs / Chemistry
pH Scale Explorer
Choose a strong or weak acid or base and dial in how concentrated it is. Then drag upward inside the beaker to pour in water & dilute it. The liquid acts as a live universal-indicator swatch, and the readouts show how pH, [H⁺], and [OH⁻] are linked through the water equilibrium.
Labs / Chemistry / pH Scale Explorer
pH Scale Explorer
Choose a strong or weak acid or base and dial in how concentrated it is. Then drag upward inside the beaker to pour in water & dilute it. The liquid acts as a live universal-indicator swatch, and the readouts show how pH, [H⁺], and [OH⁻] are linked through the water equilibrium.
Why it matters
Why explore this?
Chemistry connects events too small to see with changes we can measure. This model helps you link particles, energy, and conditions to an observable result.
Explore
Try the model
pH 7.00[H⁺] 1.0×10⁻⁷ M[OH⁻] 1.0×10⁻⁷ MNeutral
Investigate
Questions to test
Predict first, try it in the model, then use what you observe to answer.
What to try
- Start with a strong acid at 0.1 M. Each time you dilute it tenfold, how many pH units does it climb — and why doesn't it ever pass 7?
- Set the same concentration for a strong acid and a weak acid. Why is the weak acid's pH so much higher even though the amount dissolved is identical?
- For a weak acid, slide pKₐ from 2 to 10. What does a larger pKₐ tell you about how much of the acid actually gives up its H⁺?
- Watch [H⁺] and [OH⁻] as you move across the scale. Their product barely changes — can you spot the number it always multiplies to?
- Can you make a basic solution turn the beaker green? Which combination of type, concentration, and dilution lands you exactly at neutral?
Explain
Make sense of what happened
Describe what happened at the particle or energy level, then connect it to the result you saw. A strong explanation names both the cause and the evidence.
Check
Before you leave
What happened to the particles or energy?
What observation supports your explanation?
If you can answer all three using evidence from the model, you understand the main idea. If not, return to Explore and change one setting at a time.