Answer:
The pH of a solution is simply a measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions,
H
+
, which you'll often see referred to as hydronium cations,
H
3
O
+
.
More specifically, the pH of the solution is calculated using the negative log base
10
of the concentration of the hydronium cations.
∣
∣
∣
∣
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
a
a
pH
=
−
log
(
[
H
3
O
+
]
)
a
a
∣
∣
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
Now, we use the negative log base
10
because the concentration of hydronium cations is usually significantly smaller than
1
.
As you know, every increase in the value of a log function corresponds to one order of magnitude.
Explanation:
