Question

When you balance a chemical reaction, you are making sure that the law of conservation of matter is obeyed?

Answer 1

Explanation:

A balanced chemical reaction is a reaction in which there is equal number of atoms on both reactant and product side. Also, the mass of atoms or compounds present on reactant side equals the mass of atoms or compounds present on product side.

For example, $CaSO_{4} + 2HCl \rightarrow CaCl_{2} + H_{2}SO_{4}$

Molar mass of $CaSO_{4}$ = 136.14 g/mol

Molar mass of 2$HCl$ = $2 \times 36.46$ g/mol = 72.92 g/mol

Therefore, sum of molar mass of reactants = (136.14 + 72.92) g/mol

                                                                       = 209.05 g/mol

Molar mass of $CaCl_{2}$ = 110.98 g/mol

Molar mass of $H_{2}SO_{4}$ = 98.07 g/mol

Therefore, sum of molar mass of products = (110.98 + 98.07) g/mol

                                                                       = 209.05

Therefore, we can see that it is true that when you balance a chemical reaction, you are making sure that the law of conservation of matter is obeyed.

Answer 2

Answer: yes, when you balance a chemical reaction, you are making sure that the law of conservation of matter is obeyed.


Justification:


1) When you balance a chemical reaction, you add the coefficients to make the number of atoms of each element in the left side of the equation (reactants) equal to number of atoms of the same elements in the right side (products).


2) Since, each atom has a unique atomic mass associated, it results, necessarily, that the mass of the atoms of the reactants is equal to the mass of the atoms of the products.