Question of the Day: "Add Acid to Water"

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Question of the Day: "Add Acid to Water"
What is the basis of the advice to "Add acid to water, not water to acid"?

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12 Answers

  1. "ADD ACID TO WATER":  AGAIN THIS IS 5TH GRADE SCHOOL LEVEL.  DIDN'T EVERYONE LEARN THIS BY THE TIME WE WERE 10  IR 12 YEARS OLD ?

  2. In my countless water treatment training seminars over the past 50 years, I have provided a very easy to remember TIP: DO AS YOUR OUGHTA AND ACID TO WATAH!

  4. I thought this site was suppose to be for grown men who are professional water treatment people.  I guess I was wrong, this question should have been answered in the first course of science in emementary school.  I had this explained in the 5th grade.  Get real, or get off of the site. 

    3 Comments

    1. Lighten Up!

      This person could be the next Thomas Edison!!!

    2. Even people who are not as perfectly educated as you seem to be need to understand this important safety practice.  Then they can teach future generations, who will no doubt be grateful that they will avoid the sting of your disdain.

    3. "Grown Men" wouldn't be as rude as you were, Waymon Hoffheins.  I didn't learn the reason why in 5th grade.  You must have been in a strange class.

      1 Comment reply

      1. Yeah, how come Mr. Hoffheins class only learned this in the 5th grade, I learned this in the 4th.  I also learned that my dad would get really angry when I "greased" his tractor battery.

  5. acid into water pour, smooth the mixture orr, water into acid pour it goes bang and splat in your face!

  6. It is about the heat of solution, and the fact that when sulfuric acid is in the majority, the water will heat up past boiling quickly, resulting in rapid evolution of steamy acid droplets, or even an explosion of steam.  Acid into water results in a majority of water to carry the heat, and in that case, there is enough water to carry all the heat without boiling.

    1 Comment

    1. James Stewart gave the exact same answer that I would have given, which is based on the heat of this exothermic reaction. Also, as stated by another person, this same concern also exist when mixing a strong base with water.

      Bill

      Water chemistry Incorporated

  7. The larger the volume you are dealing with, the more important this is.  A 50 ml beaker may get hot, but a 1000 liter tank may explode.  And the burns from 50 ml acid probably won't kill you, but ruptured 1000 L tanks definitely have killed people.

  8. On the other hand, you should also add NaOH or KOH to water (with mixing), not add water to the strong base.  NaOH pellets especially can generate enough heat to boil the water, which would then spew hot caustic all over.

  10. When  water  is  added  to  acid , the  water  boils and the  acid  may splatter and splash! This rule is particularly important if you are working with strong  acids , which react completely with  water . Mixing  sulfuric acid  and  water  is particularly risky because the splashed  acid  is corrosive enough to immediately burn skin and clothing.

  11. It is about safety in the lab.
     

    Mixing various concentrations of aqueous acid solutions.

    Heat is released when strong acids are mixed with water. If you add water to acid, you form an extremely concentrated solution of acid initially and the solution may boil very violently, splashing concentrated acid. If you add acid to water, the solution that forms is very dilute and the small amount of heat released is not enough to vaporize and spatter it.

     

    Always Add Acid to water, and never the reverse
    See and listen this: https://youtu.be/KUfRAyNMe3k  

  12. I always take the tip, it's him in it, the acid in the water