[lespaul]

Ok, so Im doing a comparison of acid strenghts and wanted to see if my numbers were correct.

pka of Acids

- Acetic - 4.76
- Citric - 3.09 (only considering 1st proton)
- HCl - -6.3

Calculating I come up:

- Citric acid is about 47x stronger than acetic (pKa = 4.76 - 3.09 = 1.67; 10^1.67 = 46.77)
- HCl is about 1.41x10^11x stronger than acetic (pKa = 4.76 - (-6.3) = 11.06; 10^11.06 = 1.41x10^11 or 141,000,000,000)

The citric comparison looks correct and reasonable, but is HCl correct, it seems ridiculously high but the calculation seems correct.

Thanks

[Dan]

10^11.06 = 1.41x10^11 or 141,000,000,000)

I get 1.14 x 10¹¹, yes it really is that much stronger.

[sjb]

For some values of billion, yes.

( http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Long_and_short_scales&oldid=504767153 )

[lespaul]

Hey gays (and gals) thanks so much. Just wanted to make sure.

[Mr. Inquisitive]

Wow this is a new knowledge for me. Just wanna add, inorganic acids like HCl are really stronger than organic acids like acetic and citric acid.

[Rutherford]

There are acids stronger many times more than HCl itself. Look up for superacids.