{"id":25338,"date":"2025-06-18T22:27:05","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T22:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/?p=25338"},"modified":"2025-06-18T22:27:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T22:27:15","slug":"what-is-the-expected-ph-of-a-0-0055-m-solution-of-hcl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/what-is-the-expected-ph-of-a-0-0055-m-solution-of-hcl\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the expected pH of a 0.0055 M solution of HCl"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is the expected pH of a 0.0055 M solution of HCl. Write your answer to 3 decimals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\"><strong>The correct answer and explanation is:<\/strong><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Answer:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The expected pH of a 0.0055 M solution of HCl is <strong>2.260<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Explanation:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Hydrochloric acid (HCl) is a strong acid, which means it completely dissociates in aqueous solution: HCl\u2192H++Cl\u2212\\text{HCl} \\rightarrow \\text{H}^+ + \\text{Cl}^-<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since HCl dissociates completely, the concentration of hydrogen ions [H+][H^+] in solution will be equal to the initial concentration of HCl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Given: [HCl]=0.0055\u2009M[HCl] = 0.0055 \\, M<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Therefore: [H+]=0.0055\u2009M[H^+] = 0.0055 \\, M<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pH is defined as the negative logarithm (base 10) of the hydrogen ion concentration: pH=\u2212log\u2061[H+]\\text{pH} = -\\log [H^+]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Plugging in the value: pH=\u2212log\u2061(0.0055)\\text{pH} = -\\log(0.0055)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Calculate: log\u2061(0.0055)=log\u2061(5.5\u00d710\u22123)=log\u2061(5.5)+log\u2061(10\u22123)=0.7404\u22123=\u22122.2596\\log(0.0055) = \\log(5.5 \\times 10^{-3}) = \\log(5.5) + \\log(10^{-3}) = 0.7404 &#8211; 3 = -2.2596<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, pH=\u2212(\u22122.2596)=2.2596\u22482.260\\text{pH} = -(-2.2596) = 2.2596 \\approx 2.260<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Additional Notes:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Since HCl is a strong acid, it fully dissociates, so no equilibrium calculation is necessary.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The pH scale typically ranges from 0 to 14 for aqueous solutions, where lower pH indicates higher acidity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>For very dilute strong acid solutions (below about 1 \u00d7 10^-6 M), water autoionization affects pH, but 0.0055 M is sufficiently concentrated that we can ignore this.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Writing the answer to three decimal places is standard practice for precision in chemistry calculations, especially in titrations or analytical chemistry contexts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Thus, the pH of a 0.0055 M HCl solution is <strong>2.260<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the expected pH of a 0.0055 M solution of HCl. Write your answer to 3 decimals. The correct answer and explanation is: Answer: The expected pH of a 0.0055 M solution of HCl is 2.260. Explanation: Hydrochloric acid (HCl) is a strong acid, which means it completely dissociates in aqueous solution: HCl\u2192H++Cl\u2212\\text{HCl} \\rightarrow [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quiz-questions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25338"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25339,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25338\/revisions\/25339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}