eng Science and Education Publishing World Journal of Chemical Education 2375-1657 2015-11-23 3 5 124 126 10.12691/wjce-3-5-4 WJCE2015354 article Matthew S. Fox matthew.2.fox@ucdenver.edu 1 Joshua W. Greenberg 1 Jake M. Trookman 1 Department of Chemistry, Cheyenne Mountain High School, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80906-1622 United States Acid-base chemistry is becoming evermore infamous amongst new chemistry students'especially specialized topics such as buffers and their capacities. Currently, introductory chemistry students struggle to fully understand the formal definition of buffer capacity. In this manuscript, we algebraically derive a new and simple mathematical representation for buffer capacity from the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation. We find that three buffer capacity formulas evolve'each with a specific application depending on the concentration-ratio of weak acid or base to its corresponding conjugate. http://pubs.sciepub.com/wjce/3/5/4/wjce-3-5-4.pdf analytical chemistry first-year undergraduate/general high school/introductory chemistry problem solving/decision making acids-bases