Copper reacts with sulfur to from copper sulfide as shown in the equation. A scientist adds 12.7 grams of cu to 3.2 grams of s to start the reaction all of the copper and all of the sulfur react. Before running the experiment the scientist expected the products of the reaction will be a total of 15.9 grams of copper sulfide. Explain the law that the scientist used to predict that the product of the reaction would be 15.9 grams of copper sulfide
The scientist used the law of conservation of mass to predict that the product of the reaction would be 15.9 grams of copper sulfide.
The law of conservation of mass states that the total mass of the reactants must be equal to the total mass of the products in a chemical reaction. This means that matter cannot be created or destroyed during a chemical reaction, but it can only be rearranged.
In the given equation, copper (Cu) reacts with sulfur (S) to form copper sulfide (CuS). The balanced equation for this reaction is:
Cu + S → CuS
Before running the experiment, the scientist carefully measured the masses of the reactants. They added 12.7 grams of copper (Cu) and 3.2 grams of sulfur (S) to start the reaction.
Since the law of conservation of mass applies, the total mass of the reactants (12.7 g + 3.2 g = 15.9 g) should be equal to the total mass of the products formed.
Therefore, based on the principle of the conservation of mass, the scientist predicted that the product of the reaction would be a total of 15.9 grams of copper sulfide (CuS).