#ChemFact1

Think about it

     
         Imagine that you went to a party and had lots of fast food . As soon as you reached home , your stomach started paining due to acidity . 

[ Acidity , also called as acid reflux , happens when the stomach produces HCl more than necessary for digestion . The excess acid comes up the esophagus leading to a burning sensation near the chest area ] 

The homemade remedy for Acidity is to drink cold milk . Let's recall what we learnt previously in our childhood , that is , the active component of milk is Lactic Acid (C3H5O2OH) !
The fascinating yet confusing thing about this remedy is that we are using an acid(Lactic acid) to neutralize another acid(HCl) !!
We will understand why this happens after we learn Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory . Both Brønsted and Lowry gave a theory (individually) stating that
Acid :-  Any compound which has the tendency to donate a proton (H+ ion ) is known as an acid
Base:- Any compound which has the tendency to accept a proton (H+ ion ) is classified as a base

This new theory gives us a new perspective of looking at acids and bases . 
So coming back to the example we took , when HCl reacts with Lactic acid ,
Reaction: HCl + C3H5O2OH  → C3H5O2OH2+ +  Cl ⁻
                                                  ↓                         
( Looks pretty similar to hydronium ion [ H3O+ ]  that is , H+ ion which co-exists with water molecule except there is a carbon chain instead of hydrogen )
What's happening here is that HCl is donating a proton (H+ ion)  ⇒ acid , while Lactic acid is accepting a proton (H+ ion) making it a base !! and thus it reduces the inflammation and pain acidity causes .

⇛ Why is HCl donating a proton and why not Lactic acid ?
   - Well , that happens because HCl is a strong acid and strong acids are generally unstable . Being unstable , they donate H+ ion readily than weak acids like Lactic acid in this case

So the explanation above indicates that the terms 'acid' , 'base' , 'acidity' and 'basicity' are relative . 
Lactic Acid is a weak acid in comparison with HCl . Therefore it accepts the proton which HCl gives out and in turn acts as a base in this scenario . 

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