How can the law of conservation of mass apply to a burning logif all that remains of it is ash?

Answer 1

The mass loss is due to the burning, which both drives out water and other fluids by converting them to vapor, and gasses like carbon dioxide when oxygen in the air combines with carbon in the log. A very small amount of mass is also converted into energy, and radiated from the log.

Answer 2

Matter can neither be created nor destroyed thus the product is always equal to the mass of reactants. This is called the law of conservation of mass.

The pile of ash will be LIGHTER than the original log. Bearing in mind that logs are always damp- wood is never completely dry the combustion of a log is given by this "chemical equation" :-

(log + water) + O2 -> ash + CO2 + water + traces of other gases

Answer 3

In order to see that mass is conserved when a log is burned, you would have to capture all of the smoke and weigh it. When a log is burned, it will produce three things: ash, soot and smoke. The smoke contains carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, water vapor, carbon particles, and "other" components--if the tree the log came from was growing in an area with a lot of arsenic in the soil, there will be arsenic both in the smoke and in the ash.

It takes a certain mass of oxygen to burn a certain mass of wood--the certain amount varies from log to log because not all logs are the same. The products of combustion, when added together, will have the same mass as what you started with.

Answer 4

The mass of the substance after the fire will be equal to the mass of the substance before the burning. The volume of the different substances in the reactant will change due to the formation of a new substance in the products.

Answer 5

Conservation of Mass. ALthough that actually explains why the mass of the pile of ashes plus the mass of gases such as CO2 has the same mass as the oxygen consumed plus the log prior to burning! The ash pile weighs a lot less than the log.

Answer 6

No. If you measure the mass of the log before burning and measure the mass of the ashes after burning you will find that the mass of the ashes is less than the mass of the log. This is because the rest of the mass has been turned into gases such as carbon dioxide and water vapor that have escaped into the atmosphere. Burning a log is an open system.

Answer 7

All that you see is ash. Mass is conserved, but you don't see it because the carbon dioxide given off is mixed in the air.

Answer 8

YES!

if you were to catch all the smoke and fumes from the burning log in a jar

it would weigh the same as before

(don't try it, fire wont burn in a jar)

Answer 9

After