This document discusses water and pH. It contains figures and tables about the structure of water molecules, hydrogen and hydroxide ions, and pH scales. Water is a polar covalent molecule with oxygen being slightly negative and hydrogens being slightly positive. The pH scale measures hydrogen ion concentration on a scale from 0 to 14, with 7 being neutral, below 7 being acidic, and above 7 being basic. Examples of common substances and their pH values are shown ranging from stomach acid to drain cleaner.
Table 2-2 Common Types of Bonds in Biological Molecules
FIGURE 2-6b Covalent bonds involve shared electrons
(b) Oxygen lacks two electrons to fill its outer shell, so oxygen can form polar covalent bonds with two hydrogen atoms, creating water. Oxygen exerts a greater pull on the electrons than does hydrogen, so the "oxygen end" of the molecule has a slight negative charge (-) and the "hydrogen end" has a slight positive charge (+).
FIGURE 2-14 Some water is ionized
FIGURE 2-15 The pH scale
The pH scale reflects the concentration of hydrogen ions in a solution. The pH (upper scale) is the negative log of the H+ concentration (lower scale). Each unit on the scale represents a tenfold change. Lemon juice, for example, is about 10 times more acidic than orange juice, and the most severe acid rains in the northeastern United States are almost 1000 times more acidic than normal rainfall. Except for the inside of your stomach, nearly all the fluids in your body are finely adjusted to a pH of about 7.4.