The law of conservation of mass states that mass cannot be created or destroyed in a chemical reaction, it can only be rearranged. This means that in a chemical reaction, the total mass of the reactants must equal the total mass of the products.
Here's how this law applies to chemical changes:
1. Before a chemical reaction occurs, you have a certain amount of reactants with a total mass.
2. During the reaction, the atoms in the reactants rearrange to form new substances (products).
3. The total mass of the products after the reaction is the same as the total mass of the reactants before the reaction.
4. This conservation of mass is why chemical equations must be balanced, ensuring that the number of atoms of each element is the same on both sides of the equation.
For example, in the reaction between hydrogen gas (H₂) and oxygen gas (O₂) to form water (H₂O), the total mass of the hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the reactants equals the total mass of the water molecules in the products, following the law of conservation of mass.
