{"id":252807,"date":"2025-07-11T12:34:24","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T12:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/?p=252807"},"modified":"2025-07-11T12:34:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T12:34:26","slug":"which-is-incorrect-kakb-kw-ka-kb-14-ka-kb-10-14-at-room-temperature-pka-pkb-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/11\/which-is-incorrect-kakb-kw-ka-kb-14-ka-kb-10-14-at-room-temperature-pka-pkb-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Which is incorrect: Ka&#8221;Kb-Kw Ka + Kb = 14 Ka Kb = 10^-14 at room temperature PKa + PKb = 14"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Which is incorrect: Ka&#8221;Kb-Kw Ka + Kb = 14 Ka Kb = 10^-14 at room temperature PKa + PKb = 14<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-ast-global-color-1-color\">The Correct Answer and Explanation is:<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Correct Answer:<\/strong><br><strong>Ka + Kb = 14<\/strong> is <strong>incorrect<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Explanation <\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In acid-base chemistry, several relationships link the acid dissociation constant (<strong>Ka<\/strong>) and the base dissociation constant (<strong>Kb<\/strong>) of a conjugate acid-base pair, especially in aqueous solutions at <strong>room temperature<\/strong> (typically 25\u00b0C or 298 K). The following are correct and well-established:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Ka \u00d7 Kb = Kw<\/strong><br>This equation shows that the product of the acid and base dissociation constants of a conjugate acid-base pair is equal to the <strong>ionization constant of water (Kw)<\/strong>. At room temperature, Kw = <strong>1.0 \u00d7 10\u207b\u00b9\u2074<\/strong>. This is a foundational concept in equilibrium chemistry.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>pKa + pKb = 14<\/strong><br>This is the logarithmic version of the first relationship. Since pKa = -log(Ka) and pKb = -log(Kb), and since log(Ka \u00d7 Kb) = log(Kw), it follows that:<br>pKa + pKb = -log(Ka) &#8211; log(Kb) = -log(Ka \u00d7 Kb) = -log(10\u207b\u00b9\u2074) = 14<br>This is also valid at 25\u00b0C.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ka \u00d7 Kb = 10\u207b\u00b9\u2074 at room temperature<\/strong><br>This is simply another way of stating the Kw relationship mentioned above. It is true at 25\u00b0C, where the ionization of water produces H\u2083O\u207a and OH\u207b ions in a concentration of 1.0 \u00d7 10\u207b\u2077 M each, leading to Kw = [H\u2083O\u207a][OH\u207b] = 10\u207b\u00b9\u2074.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, the <strong>incorrect statement<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ka + Kb = 14<\/strong> is <strong>not valid<\/strong>. You cannot simply add Ka and Kb and expect it to equal 14. Ka and Kb are exponential values, not linear, so their addition has no direct chemical meaning. This statement likely confuses the correct logarithmic form <strong>pKa + pKb = 14<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In summary, <strong>Ka + Kb = 14<\/strong> is incorrect because the addition of dissociation constants does not correspond to any known principle in acid-base equilibrium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/learnexams-banner6-271.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-252808\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Which is incorrect: Ka&#8221;Kb-Kw Ka + Kb = 14 Ka Kb = 10^-14 at room temperature PKa + PKb = 14 The Correct Answer and Explanation is: Correct Answer:Ka + Kb = 14 is incorrect. Explanation In acid-base chemistry, several relationships link the acid dissociation constant (Ka) and the base dissociation constant (Kb) of a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252807\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}