How do you tell the difference between an acids and bases in chemistry?
Hello there, I wrote an article on Wikibooks on the properties of acids and bases, in which I also discuss conjugate acids and bases: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/General_Che… However, I do not discuss weak acids and bases in-depth so I will answer your question here. You can differentiate between strong and weak acids and bases based on a pH indicator. Recall that weak acids and bases do not fully dissociate in water, so the concentration of hydronium ions (as determined by a pH indicator) would be around neutral. For example, if you had a unknown acid sample of pH 2, then you would know that it is NOT a weak acid. Hope this helps.
