3. If you were to put a rock on the water, it would sink.
4. If you were to put a helium balloon on the water, it would float into the air.
5. Now imagine that the top of the line is neutrality on the pH scale, or a 7 on the pH scale and that the rock is an acid and the balloon is a base.
6. If the balloon and the rock’s densities averaged out to more than air and less than water and you tied them together, the balloon would stay above the water, the rock would be below it, but the center of the two would be on the water line.
7. In other words, if the balloon, or base, is as far from 7pH as the rock, or acid, is, then they will neutralize each other at 7.
8. But say the balloons density was a bit lower (a higher pH on the scale farther from 7)… It would carry the rock upward slightly more (The base would outweigh the acid so they would be more basic.
9. And if the opposite happened, they would sink (The mixture would become more acidic.
