If the pH of maple syrup is 5.2, it must be slightly acidic because it's less than 7, the pH of neutral water. pH is the power of hydrogen, which takes concentrations of H+ and converts them into the linear pH scale.
To find the concentration of H+ ([H+)], we can use the given formula:
pH = − log [H+]
5.2 = − log [H+]
-5.2 = log [H+]
Unfortunately, our unknown [H+] is inside the log function, so we need to apply the inverse function ("10 to the") to both sides to isolate [H+]:
10-5.2 = 10 (log [H+]) → 10-5.2 = [H+] = 6.3 * 10-6
To check your work, make sure that -log(6.3 * 10-6) = 5.2, which it does!
