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Concept

Henderson-Hasselbalch equation

The image displays a mathematical expression related to the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation, which describes the pH of a buffer solution as a function of the ratio of a weak acid to its conjugate base. The equation reads H.H = 3-IH = 130C.

A logarithmic relation linking the pH of a solution to the ratio of a weak acid and its conjugate base. Lawrence Henderson derived the underlying equilibrium in 1908; the Danish chemist Karl Albert Hasselbalch reformulated it in logarithmic form in 1917, making it tractable for clinical use. In blood it reduces to a relation between bicarbonate concentration and dissolved CO₂, and underpins every modern arterial blood gas reading.

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