Question

Which of the following is another name for Nitric Acid?
a.) Oil of Vitriol
b.) Blue Vitriol
c.) Aqua Regia
d.) Aqua Fortis

Answer 1

Hint: This question is heavily conceptual and requires the knowledge of other common names of different acids, therefore a good way to go about solving this question would be to eliminate the incorrect options on the basis of the knowledge we already have. For instance, oil of vitriol is another name for Sulfuric Acid (${{H}_{2}}S{{O}_{4}}$).

Complete step by step solution:
Let us go through each of the given options and discuss the compounds which have these names as well in addition to their chemical names.
As mentioned in the hint, ‘Oil of Vitriol’ is another name for Sulfuric Acid.
In chemistry, vitriol is an archaic name for a sulphate. The name comes from the Latin word "vitriolum" for "glassy", as crystals of several metallic sulphates resemble pieces of coloured glass.
Sulfuric acid or ${{H}_{2}}S{{O}_{4}}$ was called "oil of vitriol" by medieval European alchemists because it was prepared by roasting "green vitriol" in an iron retort.
Similarly, ‘Blue Vitriol’ is another name for aqueous Copper Sulphate ($CuS{{O}_{4}}.5{{H}_{2}}O$).
The word ‘Blue Vitriol’ is again derived from the archaic chemical name for sulphates as discussed above and it's called ‘Blue’ because of its appearance.
Aqua regia, mixture of concentrated nitric and hydrochloric acids ($HN{{O}_{3}}+3HCl$), usually one part of the former to three parts of the latter by volume. This mixture was given its name (literally, “royal water” in Latin) by the alchemists because of its ability to dissolve gold and other so-called noble metals.
Aqua fortis is Latin for “strong water”. It's the classical name for nitric acid ($HN{{O}_{3}}$).
It was so named because it is colourless (like water) and has about the same viscosity but was able to dissolve silver.
Therefore, from the above information, the correct answer to this question is d) Aqua Fortis.

Note: This question is extremely conceptual and requires a very good knowledge about acids to be answered correctly. Also, try and eliminate options using any pre-existing knowledge you might possess to help solve this question more effectively. Remember that Nitric acid is an extremely strong acid with watery appearance, try analysing each option with this in mind to help figure out the answer.