According to the Law of Conservation of Mass, what happens to the total mass of the reactants and products during a chemical reaction?

• A. The total mass fluctuates randomly.
• B. The total mass decreases.
• C. The total mass remains unchanged.
• D. The total mass increases.

Answer: (C)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Recall the Law of Conservation of Mass, which states that mass cannot be created or destroyed in a chemical reaction.
2. Understand that during a chemical reaction, atoms are rearranged to form new substances, but the total number of atoms remains the same.
3. Since the number of atoms and their masses remain constant, the total mass of the reactants before the reaction must equal the total mass of the products after the reaction.
4. Therefore, the total mass does not increase or decrease; it remains unchanged throughout the reaction.
5. This principle is fundamental in balancing chemical equations and predicting the amounts of products formed from given reactants.