Stupidity help: This is going to sound really stupid, but what is the difference between hydrogen chloride and hydrochloric acid? - Help.com

one is not acid

here ya go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrochl…

Hydrochloric acid is the aqueous solution of hydrogen chloride gas… so hydrochloric acid is the liquid form of hydrogen chloride, which is a gas.

well, that’s a good point. if the electrons are in different states it could be tho.

acids donate a proton. if something donates a proton, it becomes more negative. so hydrochloric acid would be HCL- while hydrogen chloride would just be HCL

lol i’m frantically trying to revert back to the chemistry classes i had 2 years ago

okay i found a better site.

here’s what it says: when they say aq or aqueous it means in water. (g or l) means gas or liquid.

Hydrogen chloride and hydrochloric acid are the same compound, HCl.
Some people call HCl (aq) hydrochloric acid and
HCl (g or l) hydrogen chloride;
in fact I would go so far as to call this a widespread practice.
This is to highlight the fact that HCl(aq) is not a molecule in
solution, but is really H+ (aq) + Cl- (aq).

IUPAC says we should call HCl hydrogen chloride no matter what its
state, so no one can say you’re wrong if you do too. But the dictionary
is not always in step with the language people are actually using…

and here’s the link: http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci…

that was a fantastic question, by the way :O)

does that help you?

hahaha yep. that’s perfect!