Physiology 1021 Study Guide - Peripheral Chemoreceptors, Common Logarithm, Carbonic Acid
12 Jan 2012
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Document Summary
Many chemical reactions that take place in the body, and most of the machinery inside all the cells are very sensitive to the presence of hydrogen ions. Hydrogen ions (h+) can alter the shape of proteins that act as enzymes that speed up chemical reactions. As a result, any change in the concentration of h+ will affect the activity of almost every cell. Therefore, it is essential that h+ concentration be very carefully regulated. In order to better understand what an acid is we must first look at the hydrogen atom and hydrogen ion. The hydrogen atom has a single proton, which is positively charged, and a single electron, which is negatively charged. A hydrogen ion (h+), on the other hand, is a hydrogen atom that has lost its electron, leaving only the positively charged proton. In some situations, the hydrogen ion may simply be called a proton.
