Acid, Base, and Buffer Lab Conclusion

Rahul Manda

Mrs. Davidheiser

Honors Biology, Period 1

October 6, 2015

Conclusion

The acid and base used in this lab made an effect on the water and liver extract.  When I used the acid on the distilled water, the effect was tremendous.  After the 30th drop, the pH of the water was 1.4 and started as 6.8.  Also, this means the acid increased the concentration of hydrogen ions because the lower the pH is, the more hydrogen ions a substance has.  While the acid lowered the pH of the distilled water, the base used in the lab increased the pH of the water.   The water started as 6.8 and ended as 11.55 as the pH.  Bases have more hydroxide ions in them which means they have a higher pH and that is why the water’s pH increases when the base was added.  When I went on to the liver extract, the results were quite different that I observed.  The liver’s pH started as 6.4.  When the acid was added, its pH was 3.04.  The difference was not as giant as with the water.  Also, after the last drop of the base, the pH was 6.76.  This seemed crazy since the pH barely changed.  I realized since liver extract is a buffer, the pH does not change that much; it keeps a constant pH.  I look at my data and saw a major contrast in the change of the pH of water and of the liver extract.  Buffers have a weak acid and base which makes the buffer stable.  Weak acids or bases means that they have a low concentration of hydrogen ions or hydroxide ions.  From my observations, I conclude that buffers keep living systems stable with buffers in their blood.  Without buffers, the pH of blood would constantly change and cause trouble to the body which is an example.  From my results with the liver extract, I could tell that buffers are different from other substances and they are the reason we might still be alive.  There were some changes that I thought about during my lab.  The probe was not stable and I dropped all the liver so the probe could be a little more stable.  Also, we should wear gloves for safety because one of lab partners got acid on his skin.  The last change I thought was we should not skip number of times by five since that is too much and maybe if we did lower changes, we could have saw when the pH lowers and when it does not that much.