Answer:
pH measures ratio of H+ ions to OH- ions of substances
pOH measures ratio of OH- ions to H+ ions of substances
Explanation:
pH is a scale which measures the ratio of H+ ions to OH- ions to identify how acidic or basic a substance is. This is because acidic substances have high amounts of H+ ions and low amounts of OH- ions, and therefore have a higher ratio of H+ to OH- ions. (And vice versa for bases, low H+ to OH- ratio) On a pH scale, acidic substances have a pH of 0 to 7, water (neutral pH, not acidic nor basic) has a pH of 7, and bases have a pH of 7-14.
pOH is very similar to pH but measures the opposite: the ratio of OH- ions (indicative of a base) to H+ ions (indicative of an acid). Therefore the pH values are reversed on the scale: Basic substances have pOHs below 7, and acidic substances are above 7 on the pOH scale.
Fundamentally, these two scales measure the same thing is the same way, one just measures the ratio one way (H+:OH-), while the other measured them the other way (OH-:H+), resulting in flipped values on the scales:
pH: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
<---Acidic---> <------Basic------->
pOH: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
<----Basic----> <-----Acidic------->
Hope this helped!
