Mass of products/Reactants [ENDORSED]

[Aiden Atoori 1C]

Can the mass of the products be greater than the total mass of the reactants. If so can you explain to me the logic behind it. Thanks

[ChathuriGunasekera1D]

The mass of the products should equal the mass of the reactants. There can be more moles of product than reactant or vice versa, but there cannot be different masses.

[mayra martinez 1D]

The mass of products can't be greater than the mass of reactants that's why the second step in solving a stoichiometry problem is writing a balanced equation for the reaction. This is due to the law of conservation of matter.

[Shivangi_2J]

The law of conservation of mass states that matter is neither created or destroyed (with the sole exception of nuclear reactions). So as long as we are dealing with chemical reactions, the mass on the reactants side before the reaction must be the same as the mass on the products side after the reaction.
However, some reactions can be confusing if one of the products is a gas that diffuses throughout the air once produced. So it may seem like the mass on the products side is smaller than the reactants, but that is only because the mass of the diffused gas is not provided. If the mass of the gas were taken into account, it would be the same.