What exactly is acid rain???

Question

Does it burn you or something? Can you tell the difference between it and regular rain through color or touch?

Answer 1

Acid rain is caused when industrial/automobile emissions are released into the atmosphere. Carried up into the troposphere where precipitation forms, the sulfurous and nitrogenous compounds either enter into solution with atmospheric moisture, and are then precipitated out with rain (or snow), or they may be precipitated out as particulate matter. The pH factor of such rain tends towards acidic.

Does it burn you? No. The acidity is not high enough to damage your flesh. However, as acid rain continues to fall into lakes, it changes the pH balance of the lake over time, to the point where conditions become unsuitable for fish, various plants, etc. There are some lakes in the Eastern U.S. that have been severely impacted by acid rain; paradoxically, such lakes often have very pure looking, crystal clear water. Because there are no fish to "stir it up," poop in it, etc.

You cannot tell the difference in the appearance of rain, but I surmise that it may be possible to tell if the pH is high or low by, say, getting your hands wet and rubbing them together, or possibly rubbing your hair between your fingertips when it is wet with rain. If you've ever experienced "squeaky hair" after washing your hair with shampoo - this is the kind of sensation an acidic pH tends to produce. Conversely, the slippery feeling of your hands after dipping them in water with added bleach is because the pH is very alkaline.

I have noticed, on occassion, that it will be raining one day and my windshield wipers will kind of "squeak" on the windshield, while at other times they move very smoothly. I'm not sure that this is the case, but I wonder whether this could be an indicator of the relative pH of the rainwater.

Acid rain may also be caused by volcanic emissions. When Mount Baker, a volcano in the Pacific Northwest, began steaming in 1975, for a time it was belching out literally thousands of pounds of steam saturated with sulfur per hour, making it one of the worst polluters in the northwest at that time. Snowmelt water sampled inside the crater had a PH of between 2 and 3, which is very acidic - enough to compromise your skin. But that is a special case.

Answer 2

acid rain or acid deposition, form of precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, or hail) containing high levels of sulfuric or nitric acids (pH below 5.5—5.6). Produced when sulfur dioxide and various nitrogen oxides combine with atmospheric moisture, acid rain can contaminate drinking water, damage vegetation and aquatic life, and erode buildings and monuments. Automobile exhausts and the burning of high-sulfur industrial fuels are thought to be the main causes, but natural sources, such as volcanic gases and forest fires, may also be significant. It has been an increasingly serious problem since the 1950s, particularly in the NE United States, Canada, and W Europe, especially Scandinavia.

Acid rain became a political issue in the 1980s, when Canada claimed that pollutants from the United States were contaminating its forests and waters. Since then regulations have been enacted in North America and Europe to curb sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants; these include the U.S. Clean Air Act (as reauthorized and expanded in 1990) and the Helsinki protocol (1985), in which 21 European nations promised to reduce emissions by specified amounts. To assess the effectiveness of reductions a comprehensive study, comparing data from lakes and rivers across N Europe and North America, was conducted by an international team of scientists in 1999. The results they reported were mixed: while sulfates (the main acidifying water pollutant from acid rain) were lower, only some areas showed a decrease in overall acidity. It remained to be determined whether more time or a greater reduction in sulfur emissions was needed to reduce freshwater acidity in all areas.Recently there has been some concern that the acidity of rain caused by man has increased over the last several decades. Acid rain attacks wildlife, crops and lakes. It can cause the death of forests and damage buildings and monuments. It is even harmful for human beings.

Answer 3

Acid rain is when there is so much pollution in the air, all the sulfates and nitrates mix with the water to form sulfuric acid and nitric acid. Acid rain is mostly dilute, so it won't hurt nearly as much than if acid was poured on you. The biggest sign of acid rain is that it eats away the paint on cars and other things, so after a strong acid rain storm, everything looks ugly.

Answer 4

Rain loaded with chemical pollutants. I live in Scotland and a few years ago some forests were quite badly affected by acid rain. The leaves were brown in spring and you could see that some trees were dying. I lived near a chemical plant and sometimes when we hung washing out it in the rain it would turn slightly green. It never burned but was unhealthy none-the-less.

Answer 5

First, all rain is naturally acid by virtue of dissolving carbon dioxide from air. This is enough to lower the pH to about 5.8. Pollutants in the air, notably NO2 and SO2 can form other acids if dissolved, and these lower the pH further. They don't burn unless you live across the street from a sulfuric acid factory, but they can corrode limestone and upset the pH balance in lakes with low alkalinity buffering, killing aquatic life.

Answer 6

No it doesn't burn you, and i don't think you can tell the difference it just effects certain things, such as polluting rivers/lakes etc which kills fish and other things living there. It also erodes buildings and statues. Its caused by pollution that we cause and it can fall as snow, hail etc.

Answer 7

acid rain is when the acid dumped into rivers is evaperated then rained down, goodness 5th graders know that