titration question? chemistry?

This won't be as good as an actual experience with titration but here goes.

Titration is performed to determine the amount of acid or base in a sample.  

Let's suppose you are determining the amount of base.  Then you would titrate with an acid, such as HCl.  You take a standard solution of 1.0 M HCl and dilute it using a volumetric pipet and volumetric flasks to a more manageable concentration, say 0.1 M HCl.  Then you put the diluted acid solution in a buret.  (I've seen the spelling burette also).  This is a narrow piece of glassware with a stopcock at the bottom and a set of gradations (markings) similar to a ruler but they measure volume not length.  The sample goes into a flask or beaker below the buret.  You add an indicator--a chemical that changes color at a certain pH--to the sample.  Then the actual process of titration begins.  

You first note the beginning volume of the 0.1 M HCl by reading the buret.  You set the stopcock on the buret so that it drips slowly into the sample.  You keep the dripping going until the indicator changes color.  This means you have added enough acid to neutralize the base.  #equivalents of acid = #equivalents of base.  (Hopefully you didn't miss the lecture where they talked about equivalents and normality of solutions.  For simple acids and bases an equivalent is a mole, but it gets more complicated when there are 2 or more acid or base functionalities, such as H2SO4 or H3PO4).  When the indicator changes color, close the stopcock and note the volume reading on the buret.

Now that the titration is done, you use the relation #equivalents of acid added = #equivalents of base in sample, as well as the volume and normality (like molarity but using equivalents per mole) of the acid that dripped into the sample, to figure out how much base was in the sample.

To determine the amount of acid in a sample, you titrate with a base such as NaOH.