Solved cryptogram
The pH scale is a ladder of tens, so three steps down is a thousand times more acidic.
Chemistry Facts, sourced to U.S. Geological Survey.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 67 letters over 17 different ones, graded easy.
Or go to the puzzle’s own page first.
What it means
The number counts how many times you would have to divide by ten to reach the concentration of acid particles in the liquid. That is why a small looking change is large: lemon juice near two and black coffee near five differ by a factor of a thousand, not by a bit. It also explains why a shift of a few tenths in the pH of a lake or an ocean is treated as serious rather than as a rounding error.
The claim comes from U.S. Geological Survey.
- SourceU.S. Geological Survey
- CollectionChemistry Facts
- Difficultyeasy
- Length67 letters, 17 of them different
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