Boy, I don't want to say anything that ticks someone off! So PLEASE don't take anything I say as a slam of any sort - it is not meant to be. Rather I would observe that folks look at this topic differently from different angles.
Certainly no problem with that or any of the rest of your post either.
Given what you do for a living I rather thought they would be hence my comment.
...if I find myself easily confused by all this, imagine what it is like for guys who don't casually dabble with figures for a living.
Although the math here is pretty trivial it is, I think, the math that actually gives most readers trouble. The most complicated mathematical concept used in this level of chemistry is the logarithm. I can't begin to immagine what it is like in high school these days but that's where I was introduced to logarithms. Now I recognize that lots of people reading here haven't touched math since high school. They need to understand that this is the Brewing Science forum and that to fully appreciate it they are going to have to make some investment in brushing up on their knowledge of basic science, in particular chemistry, and the math needed to support it.
There ARE guys that really get this and LOVE the extreme details, and the jargon, and the fine tech details!
Those are the people this forum is for but, of course, we try to make the info accessible to as many others as possible too.
You all provide FANTASTIC detail - and a lot of it might as well be in Klingon to many of us! Some times guys just need to know HOW, and WHEN to add an ingredient to the soup... I see guys just sort of fading out on this.
This may not, then, be the forum for you though there is plenty of that sort of info here too.
I know it is a complex, and detailed field.
The frustrating thing for me is that it is really very simple. One mole of CaCl2, carrying no electrical charge) dissociates into 1 mole of Ca++ ions (which carry 2 moles = 2 Eq of positive electrical charge) and 2 moles of Cl- ions which carry one mole of negative electrical charge each. The only tricky part at all is that putting 1 mole of H2CO3 into water gives f1 moles of HCO3-, f2 moles of CO3-- leaving f0 moles of H2CO3 un dissociated. Understand that and how to calculate f0, f1 and f2 (from the pH - see the sticky in bicarbonate) and you have enough to master brewing water chemistry. The problem is that even people who write spreadsheets don't seem to be able to understand this and that means that either I am some incredible genius, the Ramanujian of water chemistry, or I have not figured out how to explain these simple principles adequately. As to the first hypothesis I can assure you I am no genius (and my wife will be happy to back me up on this).
