[kevinkevin]

  We did a acid base lab in chemistry class this week and we are now working on the calculations.  The purpose of the lab was to determine the cost effectiveness of antacids.  We used Tums, generic Tums, Rolaids, and generic Rolaids.  The way I went about determining the amount of hydroxide ions that each tablet would produce was by doing a titration on a solution containing a crushed up tablet.  Now our teacher is telling us to do use full calculations.  I was hoping to get some feed back on what I think would be use full calculations that meet the purpose of the lab.  I think that I should determine the moles of hydroxide ions by using the information of the titration and then determining how many moles of hydrogen ions that tablet can neutralize?  So I would determine the cost effectiveness of each tablet by simply determining how many moles of hydrogen ions each tablet can neutralize.  Is that a good thing to go about doing?         

[Arkcon]

Yes, that seems about right.  Your titration of each tablet will use up a certain number of moles of acid to reach an endpoint, the same way an antacid will consume excess stomach acid.  Can you use your data to determine that for your self?

[Borek]

Cost effectiveness means cost should be included in the calculation. Do you know price per tablet of each antacid?

[kevinkevin]

Arkcon

   Yes I am able to use my data to determine the moles of hydrogen ions consumed per tablet.  What I thought of today to be possibly the best method was to take each antacid and figure out how many moles of hydrogen ions it can neutralize per gram.  that way there is an easy comparison throughout all the data for the different tablets. 

Borek

   That is exactly what I was thinking.  She has not given us any prices to work with yet.  I was going to take all that into consideration in the final conclusion after analyzing the data.  (i.e. price, total mass per container, dose size...)  I will ask her if we need to consider money into the problem, but right now it appears as if it is just gram per gram.