pKa vs pH?

[Michelle Wang 4I]

I'm kinda confused by the different between pKa and pH/pKb and pOH. Are they basically the same thing?

[Adrian C 1D]

pKa and pH are not really the same thing, however, they work very similarly. The p in front of the Ka and [H+] just means to take the negative log of whatever comes after. So its the negative log of Ka and [H]. The method to turn pKa and pH are just about the same, you would just do 10^neg of either one to get the Ka or [H]. With Ka and [H+], you can find Kb and [OH-] via the Kw.

[Albert Duong 4C]

Basically, Ka is the equilibrium constant for acid ionization (a large Ka indicates a stronger acid that has dissociated completely) and correlates with a high concentration of H+. pKa and pH are just simpler ways of expressing this by taking the -log of each.

[Amar Singh]

The simple way to look at is the Ka is the equilibrum concentration and if you take the -log of it, you get the pH. Same for pKb/pOH. To convert it make, simply take the 10^-(pH/pOH) to find the pKa/pKb