Hydroxide Memes

Poor hydroxide ion (OH-) getting completely ignored at the press conference! The meme plays on the pH scale, where "p" represents the negative logarithm and "H" is hydrogen. Meanwhile, pOH (the hydroxide concentration measure) sits there like the forgotten sibling of chemistry! It's like being invited to the periodic table party but nobody remembers your name. Hydroxide is literally having an identity crisis while pH gets all the fame and glory. Next thing you know, pH will have its own Instagram while pOH is still using MySpace!

The drama in this chemical relationship is off the charts! That hydroxide ion (HO - ) is desperately trying to perform an elimination reaction with tert-butyl chloride, but the bulky methyl groups are like bouncers at an exclusive molecular club saying "NOPE!" This is classic steric hindrance - where those chunky methyl groups physically block the nucleophile from attacking. The molecule's panicked "AAAAAAAAHHHHH" is basically what your organic chemistry professor hears internally whenever students mix up SN1 and SN2 reactions. Chemistry's version of "it's not you, it's my bulky molecular structure."

The perfect chemistry family drama doesn't exi-- oh wait, it does! Here we have OH- (hydroxide ion) proudly declaring "I raised that boy" about pH walking away. It's the chemistry equivalent of a parent bragging about their successful offspring. See, pH literally means "potential of Hydrogen" and measures how many protons are floating around in a solution. When hydroxide ions (OH-) show up, they snatch those protons faster than free pizza disappears at a department seminar. Fewer protons = higher pH. So yes, hydroxide quite literally "raises" the pH value. Twenty years teaching gen chem and I still chuckle at this one. Students who get this joke without explanation are the ones who definitely aren't studying the night before the exam.

Science fiction writers have a notorious obsession with acid-based weapons, completely ignoring the equally destructive potential of bases! The meme shows bases drowning while sci-fi writers gleefully elevate acids to stardom. Chemistry nerds know that strong bases like sodium hydroxide can be just as corrosive as acids—they'll dissolve proteins and saponify your fatty tissues into literal soap. Yet somehow "the alien sprayed him with hydroxide and he turned into a puddle of soap" doesn't make it into the screenplay. Justice for bases in fictional weaponry!