Acids, Bases and Salts in Daily Life

Have you ever felt a burning sensation near your heart? That might be acidity.

Our stomachs create acids to digest food. But sometimes, the stomach create more acids than needed to digest food, that’s when acidity occurs.

To counter acidity, we use an Antacid (like Eno), that antacid is actually a base.

And once we take Antacid, it neutralises the Acid, and the reaction forms a salt .

This is how Acids, Bases and Salt affects us in our daily life.

Let’s look at some examples of them now

Acids - 

Some common acids we use in our daily life are

• Hydrochloric acid (HCl) in gastric juice
• Acetic acid (CH ₃ COOH), vinegar - vinegar is used in cooking, preserving food and in cleaning. 
• Carbonic acid (H ₂ CO ₃ ), soft drinks - carbonic acid is used in soft drinks as a preservative. 
• Sulphuric acid (H ₂ SO ₄ ) is used in car batteries.
• Nitric acid (HNO ₃ ) is used in explosives and in the making of fertilizers.

Base - 

Some common bases we use are

• Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or caustic soda used in washing soaps. 
• Potassium hydroxide (KOH) or potash used in bathing soaps. 
• Calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH) ₂ ) or lime water used in white wash. 
• Magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH) ₂ ) or milk of magnesia used to control acidity (it is an antacid). 
• Ammonium hydroxide (NH ₄ OH) used in hair dyes.

Salt:  

Some common examples of salts are

• Sodium Chloride (NaCl) - It is commonly known as table salt.
• Epsom Salt (MgSO ₄ ) - It is used as a bath salt