Chapter 6, Problem 6C.18E

Interpretation Introduction

Interpretation:

The strong acid among the given acids hydrocyanic acid and ammonium ion has to be identified.

Concept Introduction:

The strength of proton donating of an acid is called acidity constant and also the acidity constant is said to be as their negative logarithms and which can be represented as follows,

    ${\text{pK}}_{\text{a}}\text{=}{\text{-logK}}_{\text{a}}$

When looking for the strength of acids the following points should be noted,

• Weak acid always have the smaller value of ${\text{K}}_{\text{a}}$ and has greater value of ${\text{pK}}_{\text{a}}\text{.}$
• Weaker the base, stronger its conjugate acid.
• Stronger the base, weaker its conjugate acid.