Acid-Base Equilibrium Calculations

The chapter on chemical equilibria introduced several types of equilibrium calculations and some strategies that are helpful in performing them. These strategies are generally useful for equilibrium systems regardless of chemical reaction class, and so they may be effectively applied to acid-base equilibrium problems.

In general writing your reaction equation and setting up an ICE table will be a helpful way to organize your information (even if you can complete the question without using the ICE table).

Remember that reactions for an acid where you know the $K_a$ will always have the form: $$\text{acid}\; + H_2 O \rightleftharpoons \text{conjugate base} \; + H_3 O^+$$ and reactions for a base with $K_b$ will always have the form: $$\text{base}\; + H_2 O \rightleftharpoons \text{conjugate acid} \; + OH^-$$