Okay so i was just thinking about something and i wanted to confirm it.
When learning a new hobby its good to figure out some things for ur self - i guess i should just rtfm but i thought the understanding would stick better this way so just bear with me.
Okay so firstly i imagine sodium has a high ph and chlorine has a low ph - combine them and u get salt - i guess that has a neutral ph - correct ?
Then i was thinking about bicarb. sodium bicarbonate - the name leads me to beleave that this is 2 carbon atoms hanging onto a sodium atom giving a ph of 8 . bake it and convert that to sodium carbonate and because of the lack of the the previous carbon atom it has a higher ph - like 12.
okay so that proves sodium has a high ph again, now this leads to the question - what is carbons ph - judging why what i just said i would imagine it to be low - like 5 or so - i had always considered it to be neutral - what is its ph ?

Hahaha!

I really like these theories about the pH but they are far from truth. I had written some tutorials on basic chemistry in this thread, and I think you can find plenty of information somewhere there. You can also ask questions regarding any topics and they will be promptly answered.

But re to your questions, sodium bicarbonate does not have two carbon atoms hanging from a sodium atom. It actually has one carbonate anion, one sodium cation and one hydrogen cation. It' formula is NaHCO3. I have no clue whatsoever why it is called sodium bicarbonate. I would never call it like that in my native language. The name is misleading enough for such connotations to arise!

On the other hand, sodium carbonate has two sodium cations and one carbonate anion. It's formula is Na2CO3

And the reason both of are bases is because they are conjugate bases. Technically speaking it is a salt, but it behaves as a base. Sodium carbonate is the child of a weak acid, carbonic acid (the "dad" ) and a strong base, sodium hydroxide (the "mom" ), like this: H2CO3 + 2NaOH -> Na2CO3 + H2O

Sodium bicarbonate is the child of the exact same parents but when there is not enough NaOH. In the above reaction 2 parts of NaOH are used for each H2CO3. If one uses 1:1 parts, should get:

H2CO3 + NaOH -> NaHCO3 + H2O

Both NaHCO3 and Na2CO3 behave as bases because when they dissolve they have the tendency to try to revive one of their parents, preferable the weakest one, in this case the dad the carbonic acid. By doing so they increase the pH, but this is described better in the Basic Chemistry section.

damn okay well thanks man - just a bit upset i was so far off - i shall now rtfm.