Law of Conservation of Mass

Nature is made up of various living and non living things, and all these together are known as the mass of the earth. Therefore, if we have to define mass, in physics, it would be "the quantity of matter as determined from its weight". But, in common terms, to find the weight of the mass, the value of the force of gravity acting on that mass is considered. You must have read about the very famous Newton's law of conservation of energy, which includes some basic principles about the energy that surrounds us. Likewise, Newton also put forward a law of conservation of mass, to explain what is mass and how it is balanced in nature. There are many similarities between the law of conservation of mass and energy and are known to be proportional to each other. Read more about this law in the coming up paragraphs.

What is the Law of Conservation of Mass

In physics, mass is known to be a closed or an isolated system, which means that there cannot be any exchange of matter with the surroundings. Therefore, mass attains a state of thermodynamic equilibrium, where no form of matter can be transported or accepted inside it. Based on this principle it is defined as;

The Law of Conservation of Mass
"The mass of substances in a closed or isolated system will remain constant, no matter what processes are acting inside the system". This is very similar to the law of conservation of energy, which states that; "The total amount of energy in an isolated system remains constant over time."

Another common consequence of these two laws is that both mass and energy can neither be created nor destroyed, they can only be transformed from one state to another. This is what the law of conservation of mass is and on the basis of this law the mass in nature always stays constant, but can be changed in different types of particles and phases of matter. Apart from being used in the physical part of science, this law is also applicable in chemical reactions that occur in closed systems, where the mass of the reactants have to be equal to the mass found in the products.

Examples of Law of Conservation

As mentioned above, nature is full of mass which is being conserved in one form or the other. Therefore, there are many law of conservation of mass examples which can be used to explain this principle in nature. Some of the easiest examples are mentioned below, so that you can learn how to apply the law in daily life. Take a look.

Example #1
When you burn charcoal, there are products that are formed due to this burning, which are soot, ashes, heat and various types of gases. Now these products of combustion are directly proportional to the raw material or the charcoal which was burned, in such a way that the mass of the charcoal turns into all the products, keeping the mass constant. However, there is a slight production of energy, when mass is transformed, in this case, being heat energy. But these changes are very minute and can't be detected easily, thus not considered.

Example #2
In this example, we will discuss a very basic chemical reaction between 1 molecule of Hydrogen with 1½ molecule of Oxygen. When these two molecules react under heat, they give one molecule of water (H₂O). The molecular weight of Hydrogen is 2 and that of Oxygen is 8, which when mixed produces 10 units, which are the molecular weight of the water molecule. Therefore, in chemistry, the mass of the substrates are kept constant in the products.

With this information about the law of conservation of mass, I am sure you have found what you were looking for. Thus, you too can come up with some daily life examples which will show you that physics and chemistry is what nature is made of!