Question

How would you distinguish experimentally between an alcohol and a carboxylic acid on the basis of a chemical property?

Answer 1

Experimentally, we can distinguish between an alcohol and carboxylic acid by conducting a litmus test. Take two test tubes and pour about 2 ml of carboxylic acid in one, and 2 ml of alcohol in the other. Add one drop of blue litmus solution in each of the test tubes.
The solution which shows no effect is alcohol, and the solution that turns the blue litmus red is carboxylic acid