Normal human blood pH is 7.40. Does that mean that all the doctors who call a pH of 7.35 "acidosis" needing immediate attention are lying?

2020-08-13T02:58:08Z

I mean, how can it be "acidosis" if it's not an actual acid?

2020-08-13T03:02:09Z

And don't get me started on "acid rain."

2020-08-13T04:54:12Z

Yes, the suffix "-osis" means "the condition of."
Which means "acidosis" means - literally - "the condition of being acidic."  Except that a pH of 7.35 is not an acid.

So how can it be "the condition of being an acid" or "the condition of becoming acidic?"

Perhaps what's more likely is that actual scientific terms are slightly more nuanced than your middle-school definitions.

2020-08-13T05:04:37Z

According to my college Chemistry textbook, "acidification" is defined as "any process that reduces the pH of a substance from its normal equilibrium value."

Which means that - just as with blood chemistry - a pH lower than normal has been "acidified."

Acid Rain is called that because it has a lower pH than rain normally does.  Even though that normal pH is well within the range of acids.  Being between 5.0 and 5.5.

By your middle-school definition, ALL rain is "acid rain."

2020-08-13T05:05:28Z

And no, despite your fevered imagination, I am not Dirac.

2020-08-13T17:28:39Z

@Let's HEAD out - And yet "acid rain" is an actual scientific term.  For rain with a pH abnormally lower than the typical 5.0 to 5.5.

Acidification is distinct from acidosis only in that one term is a process, while the other is an end point.  Blood that is acidotic got that way through acidification.  Even though its pH never drops below 7.0.

Elizabeth2020-08-13T17:43:28Z

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Because it involves an increase in the concentration of hydrogen ions in blood. That's (one) definition of something becoming 'more acidic'.

Skeptics are whining about the term acidification because they think it refers to a value rather than a direction of change.

Anonymous2020-08-13T14:25:21Z

Dirac answering his own question again.  Idiot troll.

ro2020-08-13T12:51:24Z

If you're not Dirac, then why be anonymous? 

Prove it.

Undo anonymous.

Anonymous2020-08-13T12:02:01Z

The response of the troll and his minions (whether they be sock puppets or not) is to ascribe every question or answer they disagree with to me—sorry guys, not my question. You’ll recognize my Q & A because my name will be on it. I don’t contribute anonymously and I don’t have sock puppets. Even with my name on something you’ll still need to check, because the troll is cloning accounts again. So I’ve temporarily changed my avatar to the mineral that the “geologist” failed to identify.

As for acidosis, that’s interesting, as I recall that was a key point in The Andomeda Strain. I don’t know why the deniers keep flailing around about acidification, it is the standard term from chemistry and it has been before people even worried about the ocean, it’s just one more thing that shows they don’t understand science.

lettucehead2020-08-13T08:26:31Z

Rain is already acidic, so term acid rain is redundant.

acidification ≠ acidosis

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