Which best explains why the total mass of the product(s) would be less than the total mass of the reactant(s) after a chemical reaction?
Answer (3)
The law of conservation of mass applies to all chemical reaction, so this means that there was equal mass before and after the reaction. However, if the mass has decreased, then it means there has been a loss of substance. The most common cause of this is the liberation of gases from a chemical reaction mixture, the mass of which is not measured by the scale.
Gases were released to the atmosphere.
The total mass of products may appear less than that of reactants due to the release of gases during the chemical reaction. According to the law of conservation of mass, matter is neither created nor destroyed, so any mass loss is due to gases escaping or measurement errors. It's important to ensure all products are contained to accurately assess mass changes.
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