Grade 11 Chemistry · Titration
The burette finds the unknown
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The burette finds the unknown

A titration measures a concentration you cannot see by reacting it away with one you know. A measured aliquot of the unknown acid (volume VaV_a) waits in the flask; a standard base (concentration CbC_b) drips from the burette until the indicator turns — the equivalence point, where the moles have exactly annihilated each other. At that instant CaVa=nCbVbC_a V_a = n\,C_b V_b — read aloud: C-a V-a equals n C-b V-b, where nn is the mole ratio, moles of acid per mole of base.

For HCl against NaOH the dance is one-to-one: n=1n = 1. Sulfuric acid brings TWO protons per molecule, so each acid particle spends two of the base: n=0.5n = 0.5. And since VaV_a and VbV_b meet as a ratio, millilitres cancel millilitres — the one formula in this chapter where nobody converts anything.