pH

The pH scale is a convenient way of measuring the hydrogen ion concentration. It is a logarithmic scale with a base of 10. This means that it goes up in factors of 10pH = -log₁₀[H⁺]This is read as: minus log to the base 10 of the hydrogen ion concnetration. If the hydrogen ion concentration is 0.1 or 10^-1 then the pH is 1. If the hydrogen ion concentration is 0.01 or 10^-2 then the pH is 2. If the hydrogen ion concentration is 0.001 or 10^-3 then the pH is 3. For each increase of one pH unit, the hydrogen ion concentration decreases by a tenth or 1/10. The inverse is also true.[H⁺] = 10^-pHIn practice, the pH scale runs from -1 to just over 14.