Acid-Base Calculations with a Flowchart of pValues

Acid/base calculations are a particularly difficult subject for students enrolled in general, organic and biological chemistry (GOB) courses. Yet, a sound conceptual grasp of this topic is essential to understanding the chemistry of many organic and biological compounds. This paper presents a flowchart to solve acid/base calculations in the context of GOB courses. Acid-base concentrations as well as any other quantity, X, are expressed in terms of pValues (i.e., pX = – log X). Using the flowchart provided, students can solve all common pH problems following a top-down sequence of questions that leads to the appropriate equation. The use of calculators is made unnecessary by an accompanying and user-friendly logarithm plot.