You might drop a pinch of baking soda on the liquid--if it is vinegar or battery acid, it will fizz, water will not. If it fizzes, then wafting your hand over the liquid to get a smell of it could help you tell if it has the smell of vinegar, battery acid doesn't smell like vinegar.
A clear puddle of liquid underneath your car in the driveway would more than likely be from the air conditioner which means it is just water. You could tell right away if it was battery acid or vinegar due to the smell it would emit. Also, battery acid would most likely damage the driveway. You would want to be careful if you are going to get close enough to smell it just in case it is battery acid. Battery acid contains sulphuric acid which can be very damaging to the skin.
You find a puddle of a clear liquid on your driveway. It is either water, vinegar, or battery acid from the car.how can you safely test the liquid to determine the identity?
You can determine the identity of the liquid by testing the pH. The pH will tell you the acidity or basicity of the liquid. Each of the possible identities have different pH values. The pH scale ranges from 0-14. A value of 7 is a neutral solution (neither an acid or a base). Values ranging between 8 and 14 are bases and between 0 and 6 are acids. The further away from 7, the stronger the acid or base. For example, pH = 3 is a stronger acid than pH =5 and pH=10 is a stronger acid than pH = 8. The best way to test for pH is a pH meter. It is a device similar to a thermometer, but instead of reading temperature, it reads pH value. Another method for testing pH would be by using an indicator that changes color in the presence of varying pH ranges depending on the indicator used. Taste is not a safe way to test for the identity (although in this case it would distinguish between the possibilities.) Water is typically neutral so the pH would be approximately 7. Vinegar is a weak acid so the pH would be between 2-3. Battery acid is typically sulfuric acid which is a very strong acid, so the pH would be approximately 1.See eNotes Ad-Free
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