The hypothesis that matter was made out of atoms, needed a lot of experimental evidences. French Chemist, Antoine Lavoisier carried out several experiments to finalize some valid and important concepts.
There 2 major laws of chemical combinations. We will study the first law in this lesson.
Law of conservation mass
What is this Law?
When a reaction takes place a product is formed. For example:
Sodium+ hydrochloric acid-------- sodium chloride + hydrogen
Now in this reaction, the atoms of hydrochloric acid compound break to from the compound sodium chloride and hydrogen gas is released separately. The sodium atoms present in the reactant sodium are now present in the compound sodium chloride. The hydrogen atoms present in the compound hydrochloric acid are now present in the hydrogen gas.
What does this reaction tell us? This means during a chemical reaction no mass is gained or lost. Neither a new substance is added nor an already existing substance is removed. In the start of the reaction, sodium was present in the form of element but at the end of the reaction sodium atoms were bonded with the atoms of chlorine to form sodium chloride. This tell us that during a chemical reaction the bond between the atoms are either broken down or bonded together to form new substances. Every substance that is present at the start of the reaction, always exists at the end of the reaction, not in the same form but in the same amount.
Summary:
In a chemical reaction, mass can neither be created nor destroyed. The mass of the newly formed matter will be the same as the pre-existing matter.
*Picture taken from google*
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