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# pH, Equilibrium and AP Chemistry

The AP Exam looms closer and closer. As I start in earnest working on lots of problems with my face-to-face students, I plan to do the same here.  Today, we are looking at a problem from AP Chemistry 2005.  pH problems in AP Chemistry, along with a bunch of other topics especially equilibrium and Acids/Bases are among the most feared.  Both with and without good reason. Remember, once you have the structure for a problem, the complexity automatically disappears. Here’s a snippet of that problem.

$HC_{3}H_{5}O_{2}_{_{(aq)}}\rightleftharpoons&space;C_{3}H_{5}O_{2}^{-}_{_{(aq)}}+H^{+}_{_{(aq)}},&space;K_{a}&space;=&space;1.34\times&space;10^{-5}$
Propanoic Acid, $HC_{3}H_{5}O_{2}$, ionizes in water according to the equation above.

a) Write the equilibrium constant for this reaction

b) Calculate the pH of a 0.265 M solution of propanoic acid.

Part (a) is pretty straightforward. If you know how an equilibrium constant is written, you know how to do this!
$K=\frac{[H^{+}][C_{3}H_{5}O_{2}^{-}]}{[HC_{3}H_{5}O_{2}]}$
For (b),

• We need to set up an ICE Table (Quick review I = Initial, C= Change, E= Equilibrium)

I know that many of you haven’t gotten to buffers yet, so I decided to truncate this problem with sections (a) and (b). This is the time to post questions, even if they are just about significant digits! Good luck, and ask away.

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