Could anyone give me examples of conservation of mass...?

Question

Could anyone give me examples of conservation of mass...?

Answer 1

matter can not be created or destroyed.  If you put a pound of mass into a reactor or black box or behind a magicians cloak, when you open up the box, you'll still have 1 pound, it maybe changed in composition, but there has to be a pound.  We call this a mass balance.

Even your body works that way.  If you eat a pound of food, guess what it either leaves or stays.  NOW, complete the rest of your body functions, ad in water, AIR you breath as inputs and sweat, excretions as outputs.  It will balance.

Answer 2

Was trying to think of some, but can't.   Gasoline when burnt is changed mostly to another form with the same mass, but a very tiny part IS turned to energy- a microgram per gallon or something like that.   Same with rotting wood or rusting metals- a little bit of mass is turned into energy.

Answer 3

Chemical reactions would be examples of conservation of mass.  If I burned one mole of hydrogen gas (H2) in one half mole of Oxygen gas (O2) I would get one mole of water (H2O).  The weight of the hydrogen would be 2 units and the weight of the Oxygen would be 8 units (half a mole).  The weight of the water produced would be 10 units.  Two (2) plus eight (8) equals ten (10).

I have used whole numbers for the weights which means that I have not accounted for the normal isotopic mix of both hydrogen and oxygen but that would only cloud the explanation.  I have also not taken into account matter to energy for the small amount of heat as that also confuses the issue.