What is the difference between concentration and strength

If you have missed it, you can click HERE to watch it. It is very important not to confuse the Strength of Acids with the Concentration of Acids. It usually take me some effort to re-align their concepts and associated keywords.

As we have learned in the previous blog post, Strength of Acids refers to the extent of dissociation or ionisation of an acid. Concentration of Acids is different. It refers to how much of an acid the solute is dissolved in the solution. Note that the strength of an acid is not affected by its concentration. A dilute acid solution is not the same as a weak acid solution, and a concentrated acid solution is not the same as a strong acid solution. The term concentration is actually a concept covered in the topic of Mole Concepts or Mole Calculations.

The least concentrated. If you take a sample of this solution, a spoon of this solution, you will find very little amount of H plus ions in it and that's why this is going to be least acidic. Well, if you did not understand this, I have another analogy for you. See, if I take a spoon of sugar and I mix this in the small glass of water, you can understand that this sugar solution is going to be highly concentrated, most concentrated and if you taste this, it is going to be very sweet, right?

But if I take the same spoon of sugar and I mix that in this bottle of water, you will have an idea that this sugar solution is going to be less concentrated.

It will be diluted compared to this one, right? And this will definitely taste less sweet in comparison to this one. Now, if I take the same spoon of sugar, and I mix this in this tank of water, so you'll definitely tell me that this solution is very dilute, most dilute, it is least concentrated and if you taste this, this might not even taste any sweet at all, right?

So what we notice over here, the lesser the concentration of sugar solution, the less sweet it tastes and something similar is happening over here also. The lesser the concentration of H plus ions, the less acidic it is and more the concentration of H plus ion, the more acidic it is. So let's write down the relationship between H plus ion concentration and the acidic nature of the solution.

So we are saying, if the H plus ion concentration is more, the more acidic the solution, and if the H plus ion concentration is less, the less acidic the solution. So so far we have seen that the acidic strength of a solution does not only depend on the amount of H plus present in the solution but also the volume of solution in which the H plus ions are dissolved, okay? And this ratio, this is called the concentration of H plus ions. So we have seen that if the concentration increases, meaning this ratio increase, then the acidic strength is going to be more, it is going to be more acidic and if the concentration of H plus is less, meaning this ratio is less, then the acidic strength is going to be less, it's going to be less acidic.

By the way, you don't have to worry about this ratio right now. We will talk about this in detail in a separate video, okay? For now, let's take another example and check our understanding. So here I have two glasses of water and they have the same volume, okay? And I have dissolved H plus ions in the first one and 50 H plus ions in the second one.

Can you pause the video and think about which solution is going to be more concentrated? Now, if you've tried it, let's see. So both of these solutions have the same volume but this one has more number of H plus ions in the same volume of solution. That means this is going to be more concentrated solution. This will have a higher concentration of H plus ions. And that's why you'll see this is going to be more acidic in comparison to this one.

Now let's talk about basic solution. See, they will also follow the same logic. The only difference will be that basic solutions, they have more amount of OH minus ion, so the strength of basic solution, this will not only depend on the amount of OH minus ion but also the volume of the solution in which the OH minus ions are dissolved in.

That means the strength of basic solution will depend on the concentration of OH minus ions. So if the concentration of OH minus is more, that means it's more basic and if the concentration of OH minus is less, that means the solution is less basic in nature. Now with that, let's do one problem. So I've been given that a basic solution becomes more basic after a chemical reaction.

If the hydrogen ion concentration in a solution increases by a factor of 10, the pH of the solution decreases by 1. The higher the concentration of OH - ions in an alkaline solution, the higher the pH. Predict its pH when it is diluted to 0. The hydrogen ion concentration decreases by a factor of 10, so the pH increases by 1 from 1. Predict its pH when it is diluted to make a solution with a concentration of 0.

The hydrogen ion concentration decreases by a factor of , so the pH increases by 2 from 1. Concentrations and strengths of acids - Higher Dilute and concentrated solutions A solution forms when a solute dissolves in a solvent. When solutions are described as dilute or concentrated: a dilute solution contains a relatively small amount of dissolved solute a concentrated solution contains a relatively large amount of dissolved solute Take care to use the word 'dilute' correctly.