Review
Question: How does an acid taste?
Correct Answer
Sour
ExplanationAcid tastes in sour. Food items containing acid are sour in taste, for example lemon, curd, tamarind, orange, etc. This means it is the acid which makes the taste of furits or food items sour. For example in curd lactic acid is found, in tamarind tartaric acid is found, in lemon citric acid is found.
Cause of Sour Taste
Our toungue has more than 10,000 taste buds and each buds have about 100 of receptors. These taste receptors enable us to understand taste. Taste buds are triggered by different chemical compounds. Taste buds that detect sour taste are triggered by hydrogen ion (H+).
The chemical formula of water is H2O. This means water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen. In water very small number of water molecule gets split into hydrogen ion (H+) and hydroxide ion (OH–).
Liquid in which number of hydrogen ions and number of hydroxide ions are equal, that tastes neutral. Pure water has equal number of hydrogen ions and hydroxide ions.
Liquid having more number of hydrogen ions tastes sour because hydrogen ions trigger taste buds which sense sour.
Thus, substances which has more hydrogen ions than that of hydroxide ions present in them tastes sour. For example lemon, vinegar, citrus fruits, curd, etc.