• ryannathans@aussie.zone
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    4 days ago

    It’s not a strong acid, it’s just extremely toxic. No idea how much it would have hurt at the time, my guess would be not much, but would have been fucked to experience the aftermath of such an act of idiocy

    • altphoto@lemmy.today
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      4 days ago

      It’s just one of the two strongest acids. It is able to dissolve glass. But yes, it is toxic and supposedly it kills by removing calcium from the system.

      • ryannathans@aussie.zone
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        4 days ago

        That’s not the definition of a strong acid, a strong acid is an acid that protonates easily

        It’s a weak acid

        • altphoto@lemmy.today
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          4 days ago

          Okay, despite being a weak acid by the formal definition, hydrofluoric acid is extremely corrosive and dangerous because undissociated HF penetrates tissues and the fluoride ion strongly complexes with calcium and magnesium in the body. This is why HF can cause severe burns and systemic toxicity even though it is not a strong acid in the acid base sense.

      • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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        4 days ago

        HF is a pretty weak acid. HCL, H2SO4, HNO3 ARE MUCH acidic. the flouride itself is toxic in other ways, not due to the acid.