A student wants to demonstrate the law of conservation of mass during a chemical reaction.
They find the mass of their initial reactants to be 52 grams. They conduct the reaction in a
beaker, and notice bubbles being produced in the reaction. At the conclusion of the reaction,
they find the mass of the products to be 46 grams. Based on their observations, which of the
following most likely explains the apparent change in mass?
A. The student made a mistake measuring the reactants.
B. The student conducted the reaction in an open beaker, which allowed one of the products, a
gas, to escape.
C. The student accidentally conducted a nuclear reaction in the beaker, and actually did destroy
matter by converting it into energy.
D. Conservation of mass is only a theory, and may be wrong.

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quasarJose quasarJose · Answer 1 · 2021-01-12T02:24:29+01:00

Answer:

B. The student conducted the reaction in an open beaker, which allowed one of the products, a gas, to escape.

Explanation:

Based on the law of conservation of mass, matter is neither created nor destroyed during the course of a chemical reaction.

By this premise, the mass of reactants and products must remain the same during the course of a reaction.

Here we find that this is not the case.
The mass of the product reported is less than the mass of the reactants.
The problem is that the mass of the gas bubbles produced during the course of this reaction was not accounted for.
This leaves a mass deficit already