How to tell acids and bases

[Priscilla Okaiteye]

Does anyone know a quick way to tell if a chemical is an acid or base without being given the formula?

[emily gao 1C]

I'm pretty sure they'll always give you the formula? or like acids are called acids: eg acetic acid, hydrochloric acid; bases are hydroxides eg: barium hydroxide

[Christina Chang 1C]

Generally, if there is an H it's an acid and if there is an OH then it's a base. I'm not quite sure if that's what you were trying to ask?

[IsabelLight2H]

Typically, you just look at how it would react with water. Lot's of times if it has a negative charge, it's a base and a positive charge will be an acid.

[Hannah Pham 1D]

In chem14a, we drew lewis dot structures, and through that, we saw if something was an acid or a base.

[Felicia1E]

It also depends on which definition of acids and bases you are using. In this class I believe we mainly just use the Brønsted-Lowry definition of acids and bases, which follows:

A Brønsted-Lowry acid is anything that is a proton donor (when I say proton donor in this context it means an H+ ion, not to be confused with an actual proton).

A Brønsted-Lowry base is anything that accepts a proton (again, proton is used in the same sense).

There are also Arrhenius acids and bases, which are more specific than the Brønsted Lowry definition, and Lewis acids and bases, which encompasses a broader range of substances than both the Brønsted-Lowry and Arrhenius definitions.

[Philipp_V_Dis1K]

Usually acids have an extra H on either the end or beginning of the chemical formula, and bases have an OH group.

[Beatrice Petelo 1F]

Acids tend to have an H and bases OH

Also, the Bronsted-Lowry definition:
acid: proton (H+ ion) donor
base: proton acceptor

[805087225]

Usually, the list of acids and bases remain a constant and we always know what they give us.
But if not, we have to figure out from the lewis structures after we draw them, or from the very formula, if it is given.