Question

Plant and animal cells get energy from sugar. This process is called cellular respiration. Which of the following suggests this process obeys the law of conservation of mass?

a.The mass of the reactants is less than the mass of the products.
b.The mass of the reactants is greater than the mass of the products.
c.If the mass of the reactants increases, then the mass of the products increases an equal amount.
d.If the mass of the reactants increases, then the mass of the products decreases an equal amount.

Answer 1

A process that obeys the law of conservation of the mass suggests that if the mass of the reactants increases, then the mass of the products increases an equal amount (option c).

Step-by-step explanation:

The law of conservation of mass or matter was proposed by Mikhail Lomonosov in 1748 and ratified by Antoine Lavoisier in 1785, being a universally accepted law.

According to the law of conservation of mass, in isolated systems the amount of reagents must be equal to the amount of products derived from a reaction. For this reason, if in a reaction the amount of reactants is increased, the amount of products increases proportionally.

• The other options (a, b and d) are not correct because they do not obey the law of mass conservation.