c/xkcd · by randomaccount43543@lemmy.world · 2y

xkcd #2943: Unsolved Chemistry Problems

Alt text:

I'm an H⁺ denier, in that I refuse to consider loose protons to be real hydrogen, so I personally believe it stands for 'pretend'.

439 points · 35 comments · view on lemmy.world

35 Comments

arken@lemmy.world · 47 pts · 2y (1 reply)

This one is easy. As we know from words like "photon" and "triumph", "pH" is actually pronounced "f".

kralk@lemm.ee · 2 pts · 2y

I wanted to make that joke 😟

randomaccount43543@lemmy.world · 46 pts · 2y (12 replies)

https://explainxkcd.com/2943

Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 28 pts · 2y (9 replies)

You need a 4 year degree to understand the wall of text in that explanation.

SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 2y (1 reply)

I was about to say "not really," but then I remembered that I have a couple of those, so yeah, probably.

whodatdair@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 22 pts · 2y

There’s an XKCD for that!

StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y (5 replies)

I really hope you're joking. It's written with high school level vocabulary at most.

Speculater@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 2y (4 replies)

It appears that an individual's heuristic analytical mechanism is engendering a subversion of their affective response system, resulting in epistemic determinations that lack substantiation from the linguistic parameters prevalent within the upper two quartiles of the demographic distribution.

SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 2y

Thank you, Mr. Data.

DScratch@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 2y

We’ve become exceedingly efficient at it.

swab148@startrek.website · 3 pts · 2y

Fr ong

umbrella@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 2y

[ removed ]

FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 2y

Exponents and Logarithms can be first taught in Middle School in many places, but sometimes get revisited during Calculus in AP High School or at University level.

JASN_DE@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Explainexplainxkcd.com when?

Sorse@discuss.tchncs.de · 2 pts · 2y

s0n

Puttaneska@lemmy.world · 35 pts · 2y (9 replies)

They told me at school that ‘p’ meant ‘negative log’. So ‘pH’ means ‘the negative log of the concentration of Hydrogen ions in moles/litre’.

pH 1 is 1 x 10^-1^ (strong acid)

pH 7 is 1 x 10^-7^ (neutral)

pH 14 is 1 x 10^-14^ (alkaline)

(Chemistry was a long time ago, though)

Speculater@lemmy.world · 35 pts · 2y (6 replies)

The xkcd breaks it down for us, basically we don't know because the person who coined the term never specified what it was. It's either: puissance, potens, or potenz. Which means potency in French, ~~Dutch~~ Danish and German, the three languages the scientists published in.

Bumblefumble@lemm.ee · 10 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Dutch and Danish are not the same language. So yeah, the Danish scientist published in Danish, not Dutch.

Speculater@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y

Oh shit, my bad lol.

Dagwood222@lemm.ee · 2 pts · 2y

I was taught it meant 'potential' but that was 6th Grade in the US, so I guess it was all a lie.

nodiet@feddit.de · 2 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Can the term potency also be used to refer to the exponent in English? Because that is what is meant by the terms in the other languages and I haven't come across that usage of the word potency in English

Speculater@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y

I think that's accurate, the exponent is what it's referring to, but the pedantic types are worried about what the p literally means.

Puttaneska@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y

Thank you. I think the decades-old chemistry-class flashback distracted me from thoroughly absorbing the full post!

Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 2y (1 reply)

You're missing a 4 in the alkaline line

Puttaneska@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 2y

Thank you (4 now added!)

overload@sopuli.xyz · 26 pts · 2y (6 replies)

Isn't it Potential of Hydrogen?

Dagwood222@lemm.ee · 3 pts · 2y (4 replies)

That's what I was taught back in 6th Grade.