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Acid rain is precipitation with a pH?
above 11.5.
below 5.6.
below 3.6.
above 8.2.
5 Answers
- Anonymous2 years agoFavorite Answer
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- busterwasmycatLv 72 years ago
That certainly depends on what you want to mean. Natural rainfall has a lower pH limit of about 5.5 (because of CO2 in the air making carbonic acid; just a matter of how close to equilibrium the water has gotten whether the pH is actually as low as the mid 5s), so "unusually" acidic precipitation would be stuff that is markedly below that. Normally, when someone talks about acid rain, they actually mean unusually acidic rain, so rain with a pH significantly below about 5.6 (plus or minus a few tenths of a pH unit).
If I came across that question on a test or quiz in school, I would simply spit back whatever I had been told. If I could not remember what I had been told, then I would go with "below 5.6".
Strictly speaking, any rain at normal temperature and pressure conditions (earth surface conditions) is "acid" if the pH is lower than 7.
- pisgahchemistLv 72 years ago
Acidic rain .....
There is naturally acidic rain, and then there is "really" acidic rain that is caused by human actions. Naturally acidic rain has a pH of between 5.5 and 6.5 and is due primarily to naturally occurring CO2, SO2 and NO. This was the case prior to the industrial revolution. Since then, human activity has caused an increase in CO2, SO2 and NOx in the atmosphere, and with it comes a lowering of the pH of rainwater. Today, acidic rain may have a pH as low as 3.5 and ranges upward to 5.5, but a pH of 4 is typical.
- 冷眼旁觀Lv 72 years ago
Due to the presence of slightly acidic carbon dioxide gas in the air, the pH value of unpolluted rainwater is 5.6.
Rainwater with a pH value lower than 5.6 is known as acid rain.
The answer: below 5.6