Mastery Check #6 - The Law of Conservation of Matter
The law of the conservation of matter-This law says that matter cannot be created or destroyed in a chemical reaction. In other words, Whatever elements you start out with in a chemical reaction will also end up in the products of that reaction. You cannot destroy them, only rearrange them. Examine Picture #1 & Picture #2 to see how this works. One important distinction you need to understand is in Picture #2. Notice that the mass of the reactants is exactly equal to the mass of the reactants. This will always be true for any chemical reaction.
There are a few examples that we can use to illustrate this concept. |
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Fire- Imagine you take 50 pounds of wood and burn it. You will notice and be able to relate that the weight of the ashes after you burn the wood is not equal to 50 pounds, but is much less, maybe only 5 pounds. You may think that this broke the law of conservation of matter because of the discrepancy. But what we have failed to account for is the weight of the gases that were released when you burned the wood. Look at Pictures #1 & #2 to see what happened.
Chocolate Milk- Look at Picture #3 to see this example. When you add chocolate powder or chocolate syrup to milk, you have to add the masses of both to be able to determine the ending mass of the chocolate milk. Watch the 2 videos below to see this law in action. |
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