in one of the pps, to go from CH3CH(Br)COOH (2-bromopropanoic aicd) to CH3CH(OH)COOH (2-hydroxypropanoic acid), we use 2 steps:
First steps reagent is NaOH or KOH
the second steps reagent is a strong acid. Why do we need that? would NaOH/KOH not take you straight to the desired product?