Acids and Bases Questions (please help)?

Question

hey guys...please help me with this question...Acids and bases are not my strongest thing..so plzzz help

so here's the question:

Your mother askd you to bake a cake. She tell you to not forget the baking soda (NaHCO3), and the lemon juice. Th reaction is shown below:

NaHCO3 + lemon juice ----> sodium compound + H2O + CO2

a) Is lemon juice and acid or a base?

b) Why is the lemon juice added to the sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)?

c) What do you hink carbon dioxide has to do with how "light" the cake is?


please help me....and also PLEASE EXPLAIN me how you did the question...so based on your information i can also do other questions of the worksheet

plzz & thanks

Answer 1

a. lemon juice is acid.

b. the lemon juice is add to the backing soda to make the cake rise.

c. and yes the carbon dioxide makes the cake lighter.

Answer 2

Lemon juice is an acid. Think of it like this: acids have a sour taste, bases taste more bitter and have a slippery feel to them. Don't go around tasting things to figure this out but some items are easy to figure out.



The lemon juice is added to help the cake rise. The reaction between the baking soda and lemon juice creates carbon dioxide. This creates many tiny bubbles in the cake which makes it lighter and fluffier.



The answer to b is also applied to c. The carbon dioxide makes the cake much lighter. If you mix in a small bowl a little lemon juice and baking soda you will see it fizz just like soda pop. It does the same thing in the cake batter. Many little carbon dioxide bubbles are formed and they stay there.



Hope these answers helped you!

Answer 3

a) Lemon juice is acidic. It has citric acid in it.



b)The lemon juice is added to the baking soda because they reaction causes CO2 (carbon dioxide) to be formed. Why do we want CO2?

Because of part c:



c) The carbon dioxide bubbles try to rise to the top of the cake and escape but get trapped. These bubbles leave "gaps" or "holes" in the cake. The more gaps the lighter and fluffyer the cake.