Question

The pH of a tomato juice is:
a.) 1
b.) 4
c.) 7
d.) 14

Answer 1

Hint: pH is the measure of how acidic or basic a substance or a compound is. It also is a measure of the concentration of the hydrogen ion in a solution.

Complete step by step solution:
The range of the pH goes from 0 to 14. The lesser is the pH value the more acidic a substance or a compound will be. And the more is the pH value, the more basic a substance or a compound will be.
If the value of pH is greater than or equal to 0 and less than 7, then the substance is said to be acidic.
If the value of pH is equal to 7 then the compound is said to be neutral.
If the value of the pH is greater than 7 and less than or equal to 14, then the substance is said to be basic nature.
Moving back to the question, tomato juice is made from tomatoes which have lycopene as its basic constituent. It is a pigment that is basically responsible for the red to pink color in tomatoes. Its chemical formula contains only carbon and hydrogen atoms. Its chemical formula is ${C}_{40}{H}_{56}$. For tomato juice, the pH range is 4.1-4.6. Therefore, the closest pH value for tomato juice in reference to the options is 4. Hence, the correct option is option (b).

Note: The pH range of tomato juice indicates that it is acidic in nature. For canned tomatoes and the tomato paste, the pH range is 3.5-4.7 which is slightly less than that of the tomato juice, this made be due to the presence of a small amount of water in the juice.