The World’s Strongest Acid Might be Gentle Enough to Eat
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Published 2024-01-22
Hearing the word "superacid" may evoke memories of that scene from Breaking Bad, but perhaps counterintuitively, the strongest acid on Earth wouldn't be able to destroy your bathroom.
Our previous video about the strongest acids in the world: • The Strongest Acids in the World
Hosted by: Stefan Chin
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Sources:
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Images
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commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Weak_acid.png
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All Comments (21)
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Measuring how acidic something is by how basic it isn't sounds like some serious Discworld science 😂
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"...the helium hydride ion." Oh no. That is cursed. That's some CH5 -tier cursed.
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At this point I'm pretty sure chemists and physicists are just shooting lasers at literally everything and recording the results.
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I must be the strongest acid then because I disassociate all the dang time
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High school killed my love for science. Thank you for helping to bring it back!
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I had a moment of "okay but when do the potatoes come into the testing?". Might need to rewatch this when I'm more sober...
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The first thing that comes to my mind when thinking of super acids is Hank Green getting really excited about the concept of a super acid. After that, Xenomorph blood.
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The craziest thing about the entire breaking bad was there being gallon jugs of HF in a highschool. Not a single mention of it being a contact poison either.
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Our pH meters at my workplace can measure negative pH values, but more often than not it's a sign that there's something wrong with the probe rather the acidicity is lower than zero.
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"not even through a bathtub" - bathtubs are usually acrylic or enameled steel, neither seems particularly prone to destruction by acids.
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That's why we should probably be asking what is the most corrosive acid. Which is presumably fluoroantimonic acid?
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6:06 "Scary looking equation" ... Bruh. I would love to work with equations that straightforward. cries in radiative transfer
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Was definitely the “steal your face” tabs from ‘82 Dead tour
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It makes me wonder, could carborane acids be the basis for the biology of a fictional alien species with highly acidic blood, similar to the Xenomorphs? Given their selectivity and catalytic potential, carborane acids could be a more realistic explanation. Granted, it removes the horror movie spectacle of seeing a drop of alien blood eating through several layers of spaceship floor.
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Ah, the Acid Dissociation Constant, also known as my sophomore year of college
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The only acid strength measurement I accept is the number of Nostromo decks one drop will go through.
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While the ad read got my interest, 7$ per pack of instant Ramen can F right off with Poki's 7$ cookies that are basically trying to compete with Oreos but with 1/3 the contents. I'll definitely be sticking to 60c per package instant ramen that I spruce up with vegetables and veggie bouillon on my own, thank you.
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actually hydrofluoric acid isn't only not the strongest its actually a weak acid acid≠corrosive hydrofluoric acid is corrosive (and poisonous) because of its reactivity and something can be reactive without being an acid
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I almost think we want to separate terms, because colloquially, 'strong' means 'don't touch', which is a useful function to flag. Perhaps 'reactive'? But wow this was a fantastic tour of the science of acids!
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SciShow never went clubbing.
