What is pH and how is it measured?

Whether something is acidic like lemons or alkaline like eggs and soaps is something we are all familiar with. Acidity and alkalinity are characteristics of pH. The way we quantify and measure the level of acidity or alkalinity of a substance is by its’ pH value. The element we are measuring to get pH is Hydrogen and pH is generally accepted to mean the power of Hydrogen.

In order to measure pH there must be Hydrogen present and this is usually present in an aqueous solution containing water, H2O, or some substance, such as meats, where water in some form is present. If there are more positive, (+), Hydrogen ions present the liquid is acidic. If there are more negative ions present the substance is alkaline and the negative, (-), Hydrogen ion is called the Hydroxide ion with the chemical symbol (OH−). When the positive Hydrogen ions and negative Hydroxide ions are in exact balance we get a neutral solution and the pH is 7.00 at 25 degrees Celsius. The pH scale is logarithmic and runs from 0.0 to 14.0 pH. The pH logarithmic scale simply means each range of pH changes by a factor of 10. As an example pH 3.0 has 10X times more positive H+ ions than pH 4.0 and pH 5.0 had 100X times more positive H+ ions than pH 7.00.