p is for pHunky
Submitted 11 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/d720a12e-50f6-4816-9745-4cb138d87a93.png
Comments
emuspawn@orbiting.observer 11 months ago
Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de 11 months ago
It’s not probably?
emuspawn@orbiting.observer 11 months ago
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Søren Sørensen, who came up with the concept of pH, wasn’t clear on the mean of the letter “p”. It does involve powers of 10, which can also be measured with electrical potential, so the best guess are “potential” or “power”, or several words that mean “power” in other languages and also happen to start with “p”. Bottom line, we don’t know, and unless somebody discovers more of Sørensen’s notes or a way to speak with the dead, we never will.
Geodad@lemmy.world 11 months ago
We can all speak to the dead. The problem is that they can’t answer.
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 11 months ago
That’s why I was careful to say, “speak with dead,” implying a conversation.
JayDee@lemmy.sdf.org 11 months ago
That’s actually an interesting one.
The ‘p’ could have a different meaning for a variety of languages. ‘Puissance’ in French, ‘Potenz’ in German, ‘potential’ or ‘power’ in English, ‘pondus’ or ‘potentia’ in Latin, or ‘Potens’ in Danish (probably the Danish one originally, since it was a Danish chemist who first introduced the measurement).
It’s very fun that because of the vagueness, various languages can have its meaning directly translated to their own.
mmddmm@lemm.ee 11 months ago
All those words have the same meaning.
porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 11 months ago
And the same origin, it’s not a coincidence they all start with P
Gutek8134@lemmy.world 11 months ago
There’s also pico-, prefix for 10^-12
Deconceptualist@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Protons. As in protons, How many. On a weird logarithmic scale with 7 in the middle, of course.
ArsonButCute@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
The p is for potential, as in potential Hydrogen. pH can be used to establish a concentration of protium (H+) in solution. When learning about pH in school, we used pOH (potential hydroxide) as well to speak about bases.
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Oh we’re going to pHight today, is that it?
pryre@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Easy. Pico Henry. Not sure why chemists are so concerned with such a small amount of magnetism though…
Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
It’s power of Hydrogen. We should’ve been using Watts to measure it this whole time.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 11 months ago
PornHub
IsoSpandy@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I was taught potenz in my school textbooks. potenz Hydrogen
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Phat-ass hydrogen
Siegfried@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Potencial de hidrógeno
Puttaneska@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Negative log of the concentration of…(Hydrogen ions, in pH).
BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz 11 months ago
I don’t get what the joke is
fossilesque@mander.xyz 11 months ago
Nobody actually knows what the p means but we keep using it anyway.
BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz 11 months ago
Doesn’t it mean “potential” ?
SharpieThunderflare@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
Why is there a random watermark on an xkcd? The original is here, for anyone who wants the alt text: xkcd.com/2943/
fossilesque@mander.xyz 11 months ago
I scrape the bottom of the internet barrel through a special firefox container.
lennivelkant@discuss.tchncs.de 10 months ago
Fair, but also, you could look up XKCD comics by their name or transcript and link to them directly when you come across them.