How to Balance Your Acid

This post focuses on how to maintain a healthy amount of acid in your body, or neutralize an unbalanced amount of it. A group of people, including myself, tested different types of antacids to see which would be the most effective to balance a high level of stomach acid. To carry out this investigation, we organized the types of antacids into two separate categories: generic vs. name-brand. An example of a pH scale is shown below.

http://www.eco-nomics.info/images2/ph_scale.jpg

As you can see from the information displayed on the scale above, the higher the pH, the stronger the alkalinity, or base. The lower the pH, the stronger the acidity, or acid. When acids and bases of the same level are mixed, they become neutral, like water. 

We hypothesized that if a name brand like TUMS was as well-known and thought to be as highly effective as it was, it would preform better than a generic brand such as Equate, or another name-brand: Rolaid.

To begin the procedural part of the experiment, we poured 25mL of distilled white vinegar into four separate beakers. In this study, the vinegar represented stomach acid. We tested the pH of the vinegar as a base number, or the number to go off of while performing the experiment. We then ground up the different types of antacids using a pestle and mortar to mimic the "chewing" motion that would normally occur while being ingested.

  The varied antacids were then mixed with the vinegar, each in their own separate beakers.

We tested the pH of each mixture and recorded the results.

Through the process of interpreting data, we deduced that the name brand TUMS worked most effectively on neutralizing an acid. This was because it tested a higher pH, proving the end result was more basic than the end results of the other antacid brands.

The photos and result graph were taken and made by the people performing the experiment.  The pH scale was found from an online source. (source URL is located under the pH scale)