AQA GCSE Chemistry 8462
Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table
Bonding, Structure, and the Properties of Matter
Chemical Analysis
Chemical Changes
Chemistry of the Atmosphere
Energy Changes
Organic Chemistry
Quantitative Chemistry
The Rate and Extent of Chemical Change
Using Resources
Quantitative Chemistry
Conservation of mass and balanced chemical equations
- 3 things to know
- Paper 1
Overview
The law of conservation of mass, calculating masses in sealed reactions, why reactions are shown by balanced equations, balancing the equations for hydrogen and methane burning, the difference between balancing numbers and subscripts, and counting atoms in formulae such as 3H₂SO₄ and 2Ca(OH)₂.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Explain why the total mass inside a sealed container does not change when a reaction happens in it.
Give the balancing numbers needed for the equation H₂ + O₂ → H₂O.
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
State the law of conservation of mass.
Model answer
No atoms are lost or made during a chemical reaction, so the total mass of the products equals the total mass of the reactants.
- 2
In a reaction carried out in a sealed flask, 8 g of one reactant reacts completely with 12 g of another to give a single product. What mass of product forms?
Model answer
20 g, because the mass of the product must equal the total mass of the reactants.
- 3
24 g of magnesium reacts completely with oxygen to form 40 g of magnesium oxide. What mass of oxygen reacted?
Model answer
16 g, since the mass of the product equals the total mass of the reactants.
- 4
Explain why the total mass inside a sealed container does not change when a reaction happens in it.
Model answer
The atoms present are only rearranged into new substances, and none are lost or made, so the total mass stays the same.
- 5
Explain why chemical reactions can be represented by balanced symbol equations.
Model answer
Because no atoms are lost or made, the number of atoms of each element must be the same on both sides of the equation.
- 6
What does it mean to say that a symbol equation is balanced?
Model answer
There are the same numbers of atoms of each element on the left-hand side as on the right-hand side.
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