Question

During an investigation a scientist heated 2.76 g of silver carbonate till it decomposed to leave a silver residue. The total mass of the silver residue formed was 2.16 g. Does the law of conservation of mass hold true in this case? Use complete sentences to justify your answer based on numerical calculations.

Answer 1

The equation that shows the decomposition of silver carbonate is as follows:
2Ag2CO3 > 4Ag + 2CO2 + O2--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------okay, now from the periodic table:mass of silver is 107.8682 gramsmass of carbon is 12 gramsmass of oxygen is 16 gramsmolar mass of Ag2CO3 is 2(107.8682) + 12 + 3(16) = 275.7364 grams------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------From the balanced equation above:2(275.7362) = 551.4728 grams of Ag2CO3 produces 4(107.8682) = 431.4728 grams of Ag------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Therefore, to know the mass of Ag produced from 2.76 grams of Ag2CO3, we will simply use cross multiplication as follows:mass of Ag produced = (2.76*431.4728) / (551.4728) = 2.16 grams==========================================================
Based on the above calculations, the law of conservation of mass is applied.
  hope this helped out ❤❤