A sample of water decomposes to make 4g of hydrogen gas and 32g of oxygen gas. What mass of water decomposed? How do you know?
Hint: The water decomposes into ONLY hydrogen and oxygen, and the total mass does not change in the process.
It's called the Law of Conservation of Mass.
36g
Well, it's like a magic trick, but with mass instead of rabbits! According to the Law of Conservation of Mass, mass cannot be created or destroyed in a chemical reaction. It's like that stubborn slice of pizza that never disappears no matter how hard you wish!
So, let's do some math! We know that we started with water and ended up with 4g of hydrogen gas and 32g of oxygen gas. Since the total mass of the water should remain the same, we can add those two masses together to find the mass of the water that decomposed.
4g (hydrogen) + 32g (oxygen) = 36g of water
Ta-da! So, 36g of water decomposed into 4g of hydrogen and 32g of oxygen. The Law of Conservation of Mass makes chemistry a real hoot!
To determine the mass of water that decomposed, we need to think about the Law of Conservation of Mass. According to this law, the total mass of the reactants (in this case, water) is equal to the total mass of the products (hydrogen gas and oxygen gas).
In this case, we know that the mass of hydrogen gas produced is 4 grams, and the mass of oxygen gas produced is 32 grams. Therefore, the total mass of the products is 4 + 32 = 36 grams.
Since the total mass of the products is equal to the total mass of the reactants, we can conclude that the mass of the water decomposed is also 36 grams.
To find the mass of water that decomposed in this reaction, we need to apply the Law of Conservation of Mass. According to this law, the total mass of the reactants must equal the total mass of the products in a chemical reaction.
Given that the reaction only produces hydrogen gas and oxygen gas, and the total mass does not change, we can equate the total mass of the reactants to the total mass of the products.
In this case, the 4g of hydrogen gas and 32g of oxygen gas are the products of the decomposition reaction. Therefore, the total mass of the products is 4g + 32g = 36g.
Since the total mass of the reactants must equal the total mass of the products, we can conclude that the mass of water decomposed is also 36g.