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ERIC Number: EJ1205736
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019-Feb
Pages: 5
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0021-9584
EISSN: N/A
Listening to pH
Costa, Samuel C.; Fernandes, Julio C. B.
Journal of Chemical Education, v96 n2 p372-376 Feb 2019
We developed a simple device to teach the concept of pH to visually impaired people through an experimental approach. An interface between a glass electrode and an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software (Arduino Uno) was designed using an operational amplifier of ultralow input current. A headphone connected to digital output from Arduino Uno was employed to convert the electrical signals from pH to sound frequency. Using an audio file that emits sound frequencies, visually impaired students were trained to associate specific frequencies with pH values. There is a direct relationship between the logarithm of sound frequency from a given musical note and a pH value, which can be used to train students with low vision who would otherwise have difficulty observing pH values from visual indications. Sound frequency signals of 131-659 Hz that correspond to the piano musical scale of C[subscript 3], which is one octave below middle C (small octave or the "Do" note in solfège), to E[subscript 5], one octave above middle E (two-lined octave or "Mi" note in solfège), were used to obtain sounds for the pH scale. Each musical note from these scales corresponded to one pH value with precision of 0.5 unit. This proposed method can be easily implemented in a laboratory with a relatively low cost.
Division of Chemical Education, Inc. and ACS Publications Division of the American Chemical Society. 1155 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 800-227-5558; Tel: 202-872-4600; e-mail: eic@jce.acs.org; Web site: http://pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A