One of Lavoisier's major contributions to chemistry was his?

Question

A) discovery of phlogiston.

B) explanation of the nature of combustion.

C) discovery of mercury.

D) invention of the chemical balance.

E) invention of the distillation process.

Answer 1

b

Answer 2

B) he discovered the nature of combustion and the requirement of oxygen for it.

It can't be A since he abolished that theory.

It can't be C since Mercury was known to the ancient Chinese and Indians.

It can't be D since the Balance was the first measuring device ever made and predates history.

It can't be E since Early forms of distillation were known to the Babylonians in Mesopotamia (in what is now Iraq) from at least the 2nd millennium BC.

According to Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavoisier

"Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (August 26, 1743 – May 8, 1794; French pronunciation: [ɑ̃ˈtwan lɔˈʁɑ̃ də la.vwaˈzje]), the father of modern chemistry, was a French nobleman prominent in the histories of chemistry, finance, biology, and economics. He stated the first version of the law of conservation of mass, recognized and named oxygen (1778) and hydrogen (1783), abolished the phlogiston theory, introduced the metric system, wrote the first extensive list of elements, and helped to reform chemical nomenclature. He was also an investor and administrator of the "Ferme Générale" a private tax collection company; chairman of the board of the Discount Bank (later the Banque de France); and a powerful member of a number of other aristocratic administrative councils. All of these political and economic activities enabled him to fund his scientific research. However, because of his prominence in the pre-revolutionary government in France, he was beheaded at the height of the French Revolution....

Some of Lavoisier's most important experiments were in thermodynamics and the nature of combustion, or burning. Through these experiments, he demonstrated that burning is a process that involves the combination of a substance with oxygen. (He gave this gas its name, which means "acid former," incorrectly believing that all acids had to contain it). Lavoisier also demonstrated the role of oxygen in the rusting of metal, as well as oxygen's role in animal and plant respiration. Working with Pierre-Simon Laplace, Lavoisier conducted experiments that showed that respiration was essentially a slow combustion of organic material using inhaled oxygen. Lavoisier's explanation of combustion disproved the phlogiston theory, which postulated that materials released a substance called phlogiston when they burned."