How to test acidity/alkalinity of my tap water?

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Soldato
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I was wondering about this in the shower, my skin ended up feeling a bit soapy and I remember from my chemistry days this suggests an alkaline, however this also made me remember that pH doesn't really mean a lot because you can have a pH 1 acid that you can touch without any harm because it's got something to do with moles. This is where i forget stuff though, how can you work out the moles or do you need to know the chemical makeup to work that out?
 
I'd just mtfu.

Or litmus (sp?) paper

Lol, I'm not going to change how I use my tap water I'm just interested that's all.

Also litmus paper doesn't really tell you much. I have a digital pH meter but as I say I don't really think it will mean much without knowing the moles of my tap water solution.
 
Lol, I'm not going to change how I use my tap water I'm just interested that's all.

Also litmus paper doesn't really tell you much. I have a digital pH meter but as I say I don't really think it will mean much without knowing the moles of my tap water solution.

Yeah I didn't think so :p At first I thought it might have been a 'help, my facial mask isn't working 100%, could it be my water ph or is it the freshness of the cucumber slices?' type post.

I think somebody posted a link recently to a site with water details pod all areas of the country... Haven't a clue what it was though.
 
however this also made me remember that pH doesn't really mean a lot because you can have a pH 1 acid that you can touch without any harm because it's got something to do with moles. T?

Do you mean how dilute it is? As you're looking to measure the ph as it comes out of the tap that doesn't matter to you.
 
Lol, I'm not going to change how I use my tap water I'm just interested that's all.

Also litmus paper doesn't really tell you much. I have a digital pH meter but as I say I don't really think it will mean much without knowing the moles of my tap water solution.

Yes it will, there are no moles in your tap water, nor are there ferrets for that matter.

pH is a way of expressing the concentration of acid and is a perfect measure for what you are describing. I'm not sure what your school chemistry teacher told you about molarity and acids but your on the wrong track with your thinking.
 
isn't water neutral anyway? how soapy your skin felt depends on whether the water is hard or soft which requires some other test.

Pure water is neutral. Tap water is far from pure though, thats why we don't use it in our loops!

But yes this is more to do with hard/soft water. Personally I can only tell when I have a shave.
 
I think my employer supplies us with water from the fire hydrant system, they claim it comes from a well.. Is there any way i can test this?
 
The cheapest way to measure ph is those coloured ph charts. But an electronic meter is more accurate and better but cost more money, especially water ph meters. Soil ph meters you can get for cheap.

You can't realy test water to find the origin without being able to test the individual sources and comparing the solid contents on a computer, which is expensive.

You could phyiscally follow the pipres to see where it goes or ask the facilities company/department.

I don't drink the water at one of the sites i work at because it comes from a tank on the roof which is old and disgusting. Old buildings in london have terrible water because it gets pumped up to the roof via basement pumps and then sits in an old dirty tank and comes down dirty pipes. Even a filter system does not improve the taste.
 
A 1M solution has 6x10^23 particles in it. 1M of water will weigh about 18g (Mass = Mol * Mr, Mr = 18, Mol = 1).

Not true, M is molar which is related to concentration, not mol which relates the total number of particles.

1 mol of water is what you describe as weighing 18 grams, the units M and mol mean completely different things.
 
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