• Question: what is acid xxxxxxx

    Asked by sammy to Anna, George, Jodi, Rob, Stefan on 14 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Stefan Lines

      Stefan Lines answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      If I try and remember from school, an acid is a chemical why has an excess of hydrogen ions (H+), essentially Hydrogen with its electron removed. I think Hydrogen is just made from a proton and an electron (no neutrons) so the H+ ion is just a proton. So… Acids are proton donators. They can be quite reactive with other chemicals that want some protons. These include ‘bases’. If you mix an acid and a base together than it makes a Salt. Have you done this experiment in school before?

    • Photo: Anna Scaife

      Anna Scaife answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      Hey Sammy – do you mean the chemical or the database protocol?

      In chemistry, acids are compounds that “donate” hydrogen ions. For example, the stronger an acid is, the more completely it will dissolve (separate off its hydrogen ion) in water.

      In computer science the acronym ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) is also used to assess the reliability of operations on a particular database.

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