In Which I Test Antacids and pH Levels

     Heart burn is a common effect in the body. The pain of heartburn is caused by high acidity content in the stomach. Acidity is measured with a pH unit on a scale of 0 to 14. The scale measures how acidic or basic a substance is. Let's have a illustrative representation of that shall we?

Obviously the pH scale is super dope.

     Acid has a very high hydrogen ion concentration while alkaline has a very low hydrogen ion concentration. If you were to put pH paper to your stomach acid, you would get one of these colors, which would direct you to how acidic or alkaline it would be. So when you're feeling the effects of that spicy enchilada what do you do? You reach for your favorite handy antacid!

    During this procedure, I sort of ended up with a hybrid question; "How much more effective is each level of tums, and where does one lone off brand antacid stand?" Since I wasn't able to use real stomache acid, I substituted it with vinegar, which registers around 3 on the pH scale. From the cart of supplies I gathered some pH paper, 4 beakers, 4 stir sticks, and a mortar and pestle set. The test subjects I chose were Tums Ultra 1000, Tums Regular Strength, Tums Extra Strength 750, and Equate Antacid.

Oh yes... Look at that artistic angle! Shaken' it up!

     I crushed 2 Tums Ultra 1000 tablets with my fancy grinder and added them to 20 ml of vinegar. After an immediate stir, I let it sit for exactly one minute. After the alotted time passed, I tested the mixture with a small strip of pH paper. The Result was a 6 on the pH scale.

    I repeated this step with Tums Regular Strength, which also received a 6 on the pH scale, Tums Extra Strength 750, which fell short with a 5, and Equate Antacid, which scored another disappointing 5. The object was to get as far from a 3 on the scale in order to prove the antacid's effectiveness.

The information can be viewed in this amazing graph.

     I assumed Tums Extra Strength 750 would have a more profound impact than Tums Regular Strength... it seemed fairly obvious, but Tums proved me wrong... Shame on Tums for not understanding how logic works. The tablets were all very closely matched, but if you're feeling the extra burn, reach for the Regular Strength or Ultra 1000. So in answer to my original question, they're all basically the same.

     On a side note, the equate brand worked the same as Tums Extra Strength 750, but it came out like a thick foam... It's kind of extremely unsettling. So although it does the trick and you save a dollar, I don't think I'd be comfortable having this happening in my organs-

                

                     On the left is normal, on the right we have sea foam.         See? Unsettling. Alarming. Ew.