"To define "Strong" vs "Weak" - Strong acids almost completely dissociate
into ions, weak ones don't.  Breaking those ionic bonds makes heat, sudden
heat can be "explosive"."

Acetic acid is such a weak acid it will only provide a hydrogen ion concentration of under 10^ -4 molar while sulfuric acid will provide a hydrogen ion concentration almost equal to the concentration of sulfuric acid or as much as over 10,000 times higher than acetic acid.  Breaking ionic bonds does not make heat.  Breaking any chemical bond is an endothermic process or the bond simply would not exist to start with.  But, when hydrogen ions are released those ions hydrate and formation of the hydrated hydrogen ions  results in tremendous heat release.  As sulfuric acid generates vastly more ions when dissolved in water then acetic acid generates when dissolved under the same concentration conditions the amount of hydration heat is vastly more from the sulfuric.

I have spilled acetic acid on myself many times in concentrations ranging from a few % like found in vinegar up to and including glacial acetic acid.  Glacial or pure acetic acid is a very good solvent for some types of chemical reactions.  I have run such reactions on a scale of several gallons and never had any problems.  In any case as long as you rinse the spill off your skin reasonably promptly you will suffer no harm.  If you do this with concentrated sulfuric acid it is pretty hard to rinse fast enough to avoid some damage as sulfuric is such a strong acid when concentrated it will attack the protein in your skin nearly instantly which is a problem you do not face with acetic acid at any concentration.

Other common strong acids, such as hydrochloric acid, nitric acid or perchloric acid do not suffer from the heat generation problem when diluted with water nearly as much as sulfuric acid as they are generally sold at low enough concentrations that the hydrogen ions are already dissociated and hydrated.

Dick


" Any discovery made by the human mind can be explained in its essentials to the curious learner."  Professor Benjamin Schumacher talking about teaching quantum mechanics to non scientists.   "For every complex problem there is a solution which is simple, neat and wrong."  H. L. Mencken

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