When are atoms lost or created?

[Jose Robles 1D]

I understand that atoms are not destroyed during chemical reactions, but is there a case where atoms are lost or created in a reaction, and if so, is it covered in chem 14A?(To prepare for the future)

[Justin Quan 4I]

No atoms cannot be created or destroyed, but something’s we leave out intermediate reactants and products to simply the chemical equation.

[emaad_3H]

The law of conservation of mass states that for any closed system, the mass of the system must remain constant. Atoms cannot be created or destroyed in a reaction. The confusion might lie in the fact that different molecules are created. The atoms are just rearranged and form different bonds than they started with. As they interact with different atoms, they form different molecules, which is the reaction itself.

[Caitlin Ciardelli 3E]

According to the conservation of mass, no atoms can be created nor destroyed in a closed reaction. This is in fact why we need to always balance equations before solving a problem. We need to ensure that the same number of moles of any atom are conserved between the reactant and product sides of the reaction. What can change, is the arrangement of atoms and their phases

[stephaniekim2K]

Atoms cannot be created or destroyed according to the Law of Conservation in chemical reactions, but Professor Lavelle did mention that in the future we will learn about a different type of reaction where atoms can be created of destroyed.

[thanh24mai]

the law of conservation of mass states that atoms actually cannot be lost or created in a reaction!

[jeffreygong1I]

When an atom splits during a fission reaction, the products are slightly less massive than the original because part of the mass is converted into energy. Also, atoms can be destroyed by reacting with antimatter, and apparently matter can be created by something called pair production, but don't ask me what that is.

[Abraham De Luna]

The law of conservation of mass states that atoms cannot be created or destroyed.

[Ethan Lam 4A]

Atoms can only be destroyed in nuclear reactions.

[Sreyes_1C]

Its always good to remember mass is neither created or destroyed. However it can be confusing since he mentioned something about atoms being destroyed in nuclear reactions, but pretty sure we won't see that in this class

[Cynthia Rodas 4H]

The law of conservation of mass states that atoms are neither created or destroyed. Therefore, if a chemical reaction occurs, then the chemical formula will result in the reactants and/or products being multiplied by factors that result in the same number of atoms.

[Sadhana_Dicussion_4A]

According to Dalton's atomic theory, atoms of one element cannot be converted into atoms of another element, and atoms can neither be created or destroyed in chemical reactions. The law of conservation of mass also supports this.

[alexfwang3g]

Atoms cannot be lost or created in the grand scheme of things due to the law of conservation of mass. However, they can be transformed but ultimately, there are the same number of total atoms left in the universe.

[Ethan Low 1L]

According to the law of conservation, atoms cannot be created or destroyed. I guess this is what happens in nature, however I think that with nuclear reactors we can convert atoms into energy. I don't think this will be covered in 14A or in our undergrad chem... cause that seems to be out of the scope of what we would need to know for general chemistry!

[Varadhan_3G]

Atoms are not lost or created either:) It is a lot like recycling--there is more information on the conservation of matter on Professor Lavelle's website (I would recommend watching the video of his lecture on this topic).