this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2026
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One of the things I will never forgive Chemistry for is how it didn't introduce Acid and Bases from the perspective of a continuum of modifications on Water molecules that can accentuate into an "imbalance" and thus how Water is really the natural language of translation between Acids and Bases functionally.
It makes it all so less arbitrary from that perspective, but Chemistry is atrocious with the big idea stuff lol.
But isnt that what the pH level measures: the -log(concentration of H3O+)? (where 7 is where the concentration balances that of OH-)
Yes that is precisely what it measures, but Chemistry teachers confidently taught me the pH scale over and over again like an an arbitrary continuum to memorize until I finally independently framed acids and bases in a perspective that illuminated the central role of water.
Yes technically if you just learn the pH scale you should be able to conclude that I guess but sorry not sorry most Chemistry I have dealt with is completely ignorant of the power of teaching people big ideas. Everything is fiddly, disconnected and full of little memorization rules that feel utterly arbitrary even when they precisely predict reality.
If my geology professors had taught Chemistry they would have started with big ideas like that, but Chemists taught me chemistry.
Idk electron shells just got explained better by Physics and I am pissed I had to sit there and memorize all the stupid Chemistry cargo cult rules around how electron shells "worked" when it was clearly hamfisted and nonsense.