Can someone please explain the law of conservation of mass?
The law of conservation of mass states that the mass of reactants must equal the mass of the products. Atoms that existed as part of reactants are not destroyed or created during a chemical change. They are merely rearranged, and are present in the substances that exist after the chemical change is complete. For example, if you are baking a cake from “scratch”, you would mix the ingredients such as flour, sugar, water, eggs, flavoring, etc. The cake batter does not look or smells too appetizing before baking. After you take the cake out of the oven, its appearance, texture, aroma, and taste has changed indicating that new substances were formed from the old ones. The cake theoretically should weigh exactly the same as the ingredients you put into the batter, except for some water that evaporated during baking process.
