Courses
Courses for Kids
Free study material
Offline Centres
More
Store Icon
Store

Do vinegar and salt make hydrochloric acid?

seo-qna
SearchIcon
Answer
VerifiedVerified
375k+ views
Hint: Vinegar is aqueous solution of acetic acid with some flavourings added. Vinegar generally contains about $ 5 - 8\% $ acetic acid by volume. Acetic acid has the molecular formula $ C{H_3}COOH $ . Salt is the common salt whose chemical formula is NaCl and is also called sodium chloride and now we will see how the reaction proceeds between vinegar and salt.

Complete answer:
First of all we will understand the chemical composition of vinegar and salt and then move to the product formed by their reaction.
Vinegar is aqueous solution of acetic acid with some flavourings added. Vinegar generally contains about $ 5 - 8\% $ acetic acid by volume. Chemical formula of acetic acid is $ C{H_3}COOH $ . Salt here refers to a common salt whose chemical name is sodium chloride and it has the molecular formula as NaCl.
Hence, now when vinegar reacts with salt, in actual the acetic acid present in the salt reacts with the sodium chloride and the reaction proceeds as:
 $ C{H_3}COOH + NaCl \to C{H_3}COONa + HCl $
Hence, in the above reaction we can see that the products formed are sodium acetate with chemical formula $ C{H_3}COONa $ and the second product is hydrochloric acid with chemical formula HCl.
Therefore, we can say that reacting vinegar with salt hydrochloric acid is produced.

Note:
This reaction has taken place due to the aqueous medium in which both of these reactants (sodium chloride and acetic acid (vinegar)) are soluble in water. Acetic acid which is present in vinegar is also known as Ethanoic acid. Hence now we know that vinegar reacts with sodium chloride to form hydrochloric acid.