this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2025
564 points (98.8% liked)

Science Memes

15578 readers
4970 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
all 48 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 34 points 2 months ago

"I'm whatever you aren't, you fucker" - water, to the substance you mixed with it.

[–] Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Little bits of it oscillate between hydronium and hydroxide so a little of both but not enough to make a difference.

[–] NielsBohron@lemmy.world 41 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's why the meme works. It's not because water autoionizes; it's because water is amphoteric, meaning it can act as either a Brønsted-Lowry acid or BL base depending on what what it's reacting with. Put water with ammonia, and water acts as an acid. Put water with acetic acid, and it acts as a base

Source: I teach college chemistry

[–] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Water is so cool. I like how the hydrophobic effects drives protein folding

[–] TheOakTree@lemm.ee 11 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I once brought up in a family dinner how incredible and strange water is, and how we don't really think about it.

It appears naturally in all three phases, expands when frozen, has a high surface tension, has a high specific heat, and can behave as a mild base or acid. Oh, and all the living stuff has water in it.

Nobody really understood what I meant except my sister.

[–] JATtho@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Do you know about ortho/para-H~2~O? It only gets weirder.

[–] TheOakTree@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago

Neat, I will be saving this and reading it when I'm less busy... maybe I'll get back to you on it.

[–] SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net 4 points 2 months ago

If it makes you feel any better, I totally get it.

I’ve thought many times how different the universe would be (would complex life on earth even work the same way???) if frozen water became more dense and sank like most frozen substances.

[–] I_am_10_squirrels@beehaw.org 24 points 2 months ago
[–] Una@europe.pub 16 points 2 months ago

Ah yes amphoteric compounds

[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 months ago (2 children)

H2O is neutral PH, and so answer is no. But then water tends to have a bunch of shit disolved in it. So answer is yes.

A self-contradicting proposition based on ambiguity of definition of water, of all things. This statement can be used to make HAL explode.

[–] MunkyNutts@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If you take into consideration the self-ionization of water, it's both, at the same time.

2 H~2~O -> H~3~O^+^ + ^-^OH

[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

AFAIU, it doesn't change the PH neutrality.

I understand that they self combine/react again? But is that reaction still water?

[–] NielsBohron@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Autoionization and the reverse reaction are constantly happening in water, and when the reaction is happening at the same rate forward and backward the system is said to be "at dynamic equilibrium" (aka, stuff is happening, but there's no net change)

In pure water, the equilibrium concentration of hydronium and hydroxide are equal, so it's said to be neutral. At room temperature, that equilibrium concentration is approximately 1*10^-7 moles per liter, which gives a pH of 7 (since pH is defined as the negative log _10 of hydronium concentration)

[–] Rob1992@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

It's not neutral, pure water is slightly acidic due to free hydrogen

[–] knacht1@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Do you mean dihydrogen monoxide?

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] NielsBohron@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Close, the standard IUPAC acid nomenclature would be "hydrohydroxic acid"

[–] mmddmm@lemm.ee 4 points 2 months ago

Pretty sure the OP meant hydrogen hydroxide.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What is the PH of the water? 🤔

[–] spicystraw@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] MTK@lemmy.world 29 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oh! So that's why hot water burns you!

[–] nyctre@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I know it's a joke and all, but it's not just the pH that makes something burn. A regular coke has a pH of around 2.5, for example.

[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oh yeah? Then explain the sensation my sphincter feels upon butt-chugging three cans of coke, smart guy?

[–] nyctre@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I believe that's caused by the CO2, but I'd have to test to be sure, brb.

[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They still aren't back... Oh god, did you do 4 cans?! Everyone knows you can't do 4 cans!

[–] nyctre@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Now you tell me?!

[–] MTK@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I don't know, I heard that coke can burn a hole in your septum

[–] nightwatch_admin@feddit.nl 4 points 2 months ago

It is the final frontier for either, your meme could have been so much more interesting. SAD.

[–] lugal@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Is this about the anomaly of water? I vaguely remember it from school

[–] Una@europe.pub 18 points 2 months ago (2 children)

No, this is about water being amphoteric compound meaning it behaves like a acid or base in different circumstances.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphoterism

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The water molecule is amphoteric in aqueous solution

A water molecule in aqueous solution. How can you tell it's being dissolved, or doing the dissolving?

[–] prex@aussie.zone 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

In high school I was told that one in avagadros number of water molecules splits into ions.
Is that right? It seems like a very small amount.

[–] phdepressed@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 months ago

The dissociation constant of pure water at RT is 1x10^-14. This is many magnitudes more than just one per avogadros number. The "trick" is that any given molecule of water basically has that 1x10^-14 chance of being split or otherwise whole at any given time.

[–] I_am_10_squirrels@beehaw.org 2 points 2 months ago

You mean it lives on land and in the pond?

[–] 21Cabbage@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Isn't water itself the pretty literal definition of 0 and it doesn't become one or the other until it's a solution with something else?

[–] joyjoy@lemm.ee 23 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Water is the definition of 7.

[–] 21Cabbage@lemmynsfw.com 8 points 2 months ago

Right, whatever the midpoint was. It's been a minute since my last chemistry class.

[–] CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Also I’m pretty sure it’s only coincidentally 7. The calculation for pH isn’t based on any property of water.

[–] wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Well, yes and no. The pH scale follows the hydrogen ion concentration, but specifically in aqueous media. The reason 7 is in the "middle" of the scale is because the natural dissociation of water sits at equilibrium at 10^-7 M H+ at 298K, IIRC. So perturbations naturally just displace that specific equilibrium, so it absolutely is normative to water.

[–] NielsBohron@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Interestingly enough, in other solvents a neutral pH is going to be a different value. IIRC, ammonia has an autoionization constant of 10^-30, so a neutral pH would be 15

[–] CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

By that definition, it can’t be exactly 7 then either. 10^-7 is just an estimate that we’ve agreed works fine. To my knowledge we haven’t really tried to improve this accuracy either?

[–] WalrusDragonOnABike@reddthat.com 8 points 2 months ago

The exact value varies with temperature, so it's a "good enough for the typical variations in temperature experienced by most aqueous solutions" estimate.

[–] trolololol@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

But is it +0 or -0? Neutral 0 is a lie, a measurement precision error.