• Question: Is their any chemical which would burn through your hand?

    Asked by meg123 to Amy, Karen, Sarah, Will on 20 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Sarah Martin

      Sarah Martin answered on 20 Jun 2012:

      Hi meg!

      Quite a few strong acids would in sufficient quantity, yes! Sulfuric acid, nitric acid and hydrochloric acid (H2SO4, HNO3 and HCl, respectively) wouldn’t be good news at all…

      🙂 Sarah

    • Photo: Will Reynolds

      Will Reynolds answered on 20 Jun 2012:

      Yes there are! Any concentrated strong acid or alkali will do the job nicely, particularly Hydrofluoric acid (HF) which is the strongest, but this one also has the added advantage of being able to strip calcium from your bones so its winner all round!

    • Photo: Amy Birch

      Amy Birch answered on 20 Jun 2012:

      Hi meg,
      You’re full of great questions! As Sarah said, lots of strong acids could burn your hand, also very strong alkali solutions could ‘melt’ your skin by a process called saponification. This wouldn’t be very nice at all!

    • Photo: Karen Reed

      Karen Reed answered on 20 Jun 2012:

      I’m not volunteering to try out any of the things you guys have suggeted 🙂

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