What are Acids? - What make them different to other chemicals?

Every day, we play with a lot of chemicals like acids, salts, gases, and bases which we do not call them by their chemical names but by their common names e.g. NaCl is a salt which means Sodium Chloride but we call it by the name of table salt.Likewise, as we are talking about acids particularly, so acids are also of a lot of different types, each with different chemical formulas and thus each has its own distinct chemical and physical properties.But first, we must know that what are acids and etcetera.For this purpose, I have written some questions below, so that you get a sketch of this post and what is it about further down.
The questions are;
1-What are acids?
2-The Chemical Properties of acids?
3-The Physical properties of acids?
4-What are acids mostly used for?
So let us start.

Acids

Acids are those chemicals which when are dissolved in water, give off Hydrogen ions(H+).So it is necessary that every acid must have Hydrogen ions or atoms in its formula, otherwise, it would not give off any Hydrogen ion and hence it won't be an acid.The more H+ ions it gives off, the stronger it is.

Chemical Properties of Acids

Acids, as we all generally know are corrosive and they have a bleaching effect but there is much more going on behind this understanding of ours.For convenience in reading, I am listing the chemical properties of acids in points.

1-The most important chemical property of acids is that they must dissolve in water in order to show their acidic properties.Without dissolving in water, they would not react with anything.We have earlier known that acids are the chemicals which when are dissolved in water, give off H+ ions.So what actually water does is that it breaks the ionic bond of that substance which dissolves in it.For example, if we take the acid Hydrogen Chloride or HCL or HydroChloric acid.This HydroChloric acid is actually a gas but when we dissolve it in water, then it starts to show its properties.So, it is the first and foremost point to be noted that acids must get dissolved in water in order to further react with other chemicals.

2-Acids react with Metal Oxides (Bases) or Metal Hydroxides (Alkalis) to neutralize a solution.If we take an acid e.g. HCL or HydroChloric acid and a base e.g. Na2O or Sodium Oxide and make both of them chemically react with each other, so we will get the end products in the form of a salt and water i-e are NaCl and H2O.This kind of reaction is also called Neutralization.And now you know that why do we use a basic toothpaste to fight off the acidic bacteria on our teeth.

3-Acids react with metals to produce a salt and Hydrogen gas.If we take the acid H2SO4 and make it react with the metal Zn or Zinc, so we will get the salt ZnSO4 and H2 gas as the end products.

4- Acids like H2SO4 react with Carbonates such as MgCO3 or Magnesium Carbonate to give the end products in the form of the salt MgSO4 (Magnesium Sulfate), water as H2O and the Carbon dioxide gas as CO2.

Physical Properties of Acids

Apart from the chemical properties of acids, they are also distinguishable from other chemicals or substances due to their physical properties.

1-Acids have a sour taste and you might know that vinegar and lemon juice are acidic that is why they taste sour.

2-Acids have a strong smell and constantly burn and stings one's nose.

3-Acids are corrosive and can burn one's skin.

4-Acids have pH level below 7.

Uses of Acids

Acids are of many types; some are strong and some are weak.Accordingly, they are used for many different purposes and can be very useful aside from damaging most of the tings.

1-Sulphuric acid is used as an electrolyte in car batteries.

2-Natrally, the HydroChloric acid is found in our stomachs which help in the digestion of ingested food.

3-Acids are used in the process of neutralization of a solution by reacting with alkalis.

4-Acids are also used as bleaching agents to remove stains.

Acids are one of the most important chemical substances that make up part of our environment, our body, and our foods.Apart from them being found with many other chemical substances in a solution, they can be extracted and used for many purposes from which some of them are mentioned above.They can be very strong and must be handled with caution and proper safety while weak acids may not do much harm.But whatever the case is, the purpose of this post was just to teach what an acid is and how it is used by us?All of the information above is just for educational purposes and from nowhere suggests of playing with harmful chemicals.

Thanks for reading and stay EDUCATED!