Question

You have been provided with three test tubes, one of them contains distilled water and the other two contain an acidic solution and a basic solution respectively. If you are given only red litmus paper; how will you identify the contents of each test tube?

Answer 1

Add few drops of solution from all three test tubes on the red litmus paper separately. The solution which turns red litmus to blue contains basic solution. Use this blue litmus paper to test the solutions in other two test tubes. The solution from the test tube which turns blue litmus paper to red will be the acidic solution and solution of the test tube which do not change either red or blue litmus paper contain water.