Why is acetic acid a weak acid?

1 Answer
Trevor Ryan.
Dec 26, 2015

It ionizes to a small extent in water to form a low concentration of H^+ ions (or H_3O^+) in solution.

In the reversible chemical equation, CH_3COOH->H_(aq)^+ +CH_3COO_(aq)^-,
the equilibrium lies far to the left and hence the K_a value is very small.

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