Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!iuvax!bsu-cs!dhesi
From: dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Caution: electolysis of water
Message-ID: <5270@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Date: 22 Dec 88 23:42:41 GMT
References: <2479@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <849@inuxm.UUCP> <7395@watcgl.waterloo.edu> <1988Dec20.204917.21249@utzoo.uucp> <2855@kitty.UUCP>
Reply-To: dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi)
Organization: CS Dept, Ball St U, Muncie, Indiana
Lines: 11

In article <2855@kitty.UUCP> larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman) writes:
>If you want to produce hydrogen and oxygen from water, a _slight_
>amount of sulfuric acid will do wonders for increasing electrolyte
>conductivity without creating any significant side reactions.

Textbooks frequently say this, but the terminology isn't correct.  When
you add sulfuric acid, you aren't electrolysing water any more.  You
are electrolysing dilute sulfuric acid.  It is fortuitous that the
electrolysis products are the same as for water.
-- 
Rahul Dhesi         UUCP:  <backbones>!{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!dhesi