Question

When dr. farrell was a graduate student, he once made up a ph 8.0 sodium acetate buffer. why would the casual observer to this buffering faux pas come to the conclusion that he had the intellectual agility of a small soap dish?

Answer 1

I think the pKa for acetic acid is about 4.74. Therefore Acetic acid/acetate buffer will work best at 4.74 +/- 1 pH unit and so the pH 8 is far removed from that. Hence it would not buffer at that pH at all.