this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] bjorney@lemmy.ca 19 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Stomach acid is like 10,000,000x more acidic than most alkaline water is basic. Dilution is probably doing an order of magnitude more work than the hydroxide here (meaning just drink more tap water)

[–] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world -4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

I didnt say it would make a significant or even measurable difference. But it will technically drop your overall pH. If I drop any mass of basic material in any volume of acidic material with which it can react, there will be some net change in acidity, even if negligible.

[–] eestileib@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Ahh I see you have forgotten pH buffering solutions.

[–] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I was more of a physics nerd. Can't say I've heard of such a thing.

[–] eestileib@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Weak acids/bases tend to not fully convert their potential free ions, stabilizing at particular pHs for relatively large ranges of concentration.

You can use that as a basis for solutions that aren't super-basic but will preserve their pH in response to drips of acid.

[–] chemicalprophet@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 weeks ago

But please…go on.

[–] angrystego@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The body maintains homeostasis. It cannot afford to change pH. It is capable to buffer pH by neat biochemical mechanisms.

[–] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Yes, I know. And to maintain homeostasis, it has means to make adjustments to changes, like pH. Which means you can change the pH of some fluid in the body within reason, and it will correct this change. We are not saying anything different.

[–] angrystego@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Yep, we agree. I was just pointing out the overall pH doen not change, there are ways to avoid that. From the the previous comment it kimd of seemed as though if you put something acidic in, the overall acidity must increase, which is not the case, so I wanted to make sure random readers don't get the wrong idea.