Design Idea: Add color as a qualitative marker of pH value in addition to described acidity/basicity

[terracoda]

In addition to the actual pH value, we created a qualitative map to describe the pH

pH parameters	value	Range	notes:
14	extremely basic	13.00-14.00	Drain cleaner 13.00
12	highly basic	11.00-12.99
10	moderately basic	9.00-10.99	Hand soap 10.00
8	slightly basic	7.01-8.99	Blood  7.40Spit 7.40
7	neutral	7
6	slightly acidic	5.1-6.99	Milk 6.50Chicken Soup  5.80
4	moderately acidic	3.1-5	Coffee 5.00OJ 3.50
2	highly acidic	1.01-3	Soda 2.50Vomit 2.0
0	extremely acidic	0-1.00	Battery Acid 1.00

We could potentially add a dynamic description of the color indicated on the ph meter. This was suggested by a description design collaborator, Dduha Chehadeh.

Just adding this issue for future investigation of where and how to provide color information about the pH, and whether a dynamic or static description of the colors in the meter will work best.

[Dduha-KISR]

Why aren't' the colors of the pH sensor in the sim mapped to the colors of the universal indicator? Shouldn't the bar of the pH sensor be developed as piecewise line with more pieces or more stops? It seems as it was programmed as a piecewise line with one piece (red to blue)!
Thank you

[pixelzoom]

Hello @Dduha-KISR and thanks for the question. Could you please clarify what you mean by "the colors of the pH sensor"? Is it the bar labeled "Acidic Basic" shown in the screenshot below?

[pixelzoom]

@terracoda You might want to consult with the subject-matter experts on this issue. There is existing terminology for describing acids and bases qualitatively.

Acid and bases are typically described as strong or weak. Or for relative comparisons, "weaker" or "stronger". You can test-drive this in related sim Acid Base Solutions, or see the red arrows in the screenshots below.

There are also less-standardized qualitative terms that many people recognize. For example, "highly acid" is commonly considered to be pH <= 4.6. You've redefined "highly acid" to be pH 1.01-3. There is a similar problem with other qualitative "values" in the table above.

Redefining terms that have standard/common meanings, or inventing new terms, seems pedagogically problematic.