acids and bases question

[hard]

okay so i'm now learning about acids and bases, however I'm stuck on a question, well a concept really.

The basic concept is knowing which hydrgen gives, and which one takes making the acids and baeses.

let's look at this question.

Q1 . what is the conjugate acid of the following pair.

a) O^2-

solution

O^2-(aq) + H2O(l) --> OH(aq)^-  + OH^-(aq

however, because the water has more hydrogen atoms, wouldn't you expect the equation to stay the same since there are no hydrogen atoms attached to the lone oxygen atom. Can you please explain why this is so?

Also one last question.

Q2. show that the reaction between a solution of sodium hydroxide and a solution of hydrochloric acid is a bronsted - lowry acid-base reaction.

Also one last thing, can you please explain to me, how do you know which atom in the  equation receicve or give the hydrogen atom. thanks.

[Jeffree]

oxygen is fat..n negative..it wants those Hydrogens..gimme more..gimme gimme more. i think.

[hard]

umm lol is there more of a scientific reason?

[bturville]

the acts as a base, because it is accepting the H+

remember: to find the conjugate acid of something, you add H+ to the formula...and to find the conj base you remove H+ from the formula.

as for knowing whats an acid and what is a base, at the VCE level they pretty much only give you compounds that you will recognize, ie common bases and acids, carboxylic acids, etc. working out how acidic/basic a molecule is from the structure alone is a fair bit of work without more info, they won't put you through that.

[hard]

^ thnx bturville