Question

The chemical reaction given below shows the reaction between phosphorus and oxygen to form phosphorus pentoxide.
P4 + 5O2 → 2P2O5
Does the reaction obey the law of conservation of mass and if so, how?

A. It obeys the law of conservation of mass since two different elements bonded together to form a compound.
B. It does not obey the law of conservation of mass since phosphorus and oxygen show different types of bonding in the reactant and products.
C. It obeys the law of conservation of mass since the amount of phosphorus and oxygen remains the same throughout the reaction.
D. It does not obey the law of conservation of mass since the reactants and products have different compositions of elements.

Answer 1

Answer:

The ancient Greeks first proposed the idea that the total amount of matter in the universe is constant. However, Antoine Lavoisier described the law of conservation of mass (or the principle of mass/matter conservation) as a fundamental principle of physics in 1789.

Antoine LavoisierA portrait of Antoine Lavoisier, the scientist credited with the discovery of the law of conservation of mass.

This law states that, despite chemical reactions or physical transformations, mass is conserved — that is, it cannot be created or destroyed — within an isolated system. In other words, in a chemical reaction, the mass of the products will always be equal to the mass of the reactance