Chapter 21, Problem 21.42QP

Interpretation Introduction

Interpretation: The three harmful effects of acid rain should be determined.

Concept Introduction:

Acid rain: Rain is considered as acid rain when the concentration of acid is high in rain water that is $\text{pH}$ in rain water becomes too low and the acid rain has harmful effects on the living organism due to increased acid concentration.

Sulphur dioxide is the gas responsible for acid rain formation.

The volcanic eruptions are the primary source for the two-third percent composition present in the air.

The Sulphur dioxide gas is one of the gases emitted into the atmosphere from volcanic eruptions that is the ${\text{H}}_{\text{2}}\text{S}$ gas emitted by eruptions just gets oxidized by air and results to form Sulphur dioxide in which some are again gets reduced by the ${\text{H}}_{\text{2}}\text{S}$ gas ejected from volcano resulting to Sulphur and water whereas the remaining ${\text{SO}}_{\text{2}}$ gets reacted with water and forms acid rain.

$\begin{array}{l}\text{The}{\text{H}}_{\text{2}}\text{S}\text{gets}\text{oxidized}\text{by}\text{air}\\ {\text{2H}}_{\text{2}}\text{S}\left(\text{g}\right){\text{+3O}}_{\text{2}}\left(\text{g}\right)\to {\text{2SO}}_{\text{2}}\left(\text{g}\right){\text{+2H}}_{\text{2}}\text{O}\left(\text{g}\right)\end{array}$

$\begin{array}{l}\text{Reduction}\text{of}{\text{SO}}_{\text{2}}\text{by}{\text{H}}_{\text{2}}\text{S}\\ {\text{2H}}_{\text{2}}\text{S}\left(\text{g}\right){\text{+SO}}_{\text{2}}\left(\text{g}\right)\to 3\text{S}\left(s\right){\text{+2H}}_{\text{2}}\text{O}\left(\text{g}\right)\end{array}$

Oxidation: It is type of reaction which involves loss of electrons or removal of hydrogen and addition of oxygen atom.

Reduction: It is also type of reaction in which the electrons gets added or addition of hydrogen and removal of oxygen atom.

To determine: The damages caused by the acid rain.