Why are alkaline solutions called “bases”? What’s “basic” about them?
In: 3
The language is funny and historical so forget about it.
They should probably be called a “negative acid” or something.
They’re fundamentally (colloquially) just the “opposite” of acids in that they corrode things by having extra electrons (acids corrode things by stealing electrons) – this is a very rough and colloquial description but I think it’s good enough to discuss at a simple level.
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