Does the Law of Conservation of Mass apply to chemical reactions?
To solve that problem, you must use some stoichiometry. There is a concept called a ‘limiting reactant’ and it is what determines how much product is yielded. The Law od Conservation of Mass would confirm that you cannot create more product than your limiting reactant allows. The limiting reactant is determined simply by deciding which reactant produces the least amount of product (or simple put, which reactant is used up completely leaving an excess of the other reactant). To find the limiting reactant, convert all the reactant to moles. Then multiply by stoichiometrically equivalent molar ratios (big name, simple concept, I’ll show you below). Since you gave no detail on how much O2 is present, I will assume it is very abundant and it has some molecules that are left over after the reaction occurs (so it cannot be the limiting reactant). Here is how you need to solve this problem: Step 1.) Convert all the reactants to moles using the molar mass of the reactants: Iron has an atomic ma
