How do you determine the mass of products from reactants?

You determine the mass of products from reactants by using the law of conservation of mass and stoichiometry.

The law of conservation of mass states that matter cannot be created or destroyed. This means that the total mass of the reactants in a chemical reaction must equal the total mass of the products. In other words, the mass of the reactants you start with will always be the same as the mass of the products you end up with. This principle is fundamental in chemistry and is used to balance chemical equations.

Stoichiometry is the part of chemistry that studies the quantitative relationships between the reactants and products in a chemical reaction. It involves using the balanced chemical equation for the reaction and the molar masses of the reactants and products to calculate the mass of the products. The balanced chemical equation tells you the ratio in which the reactants combine to form the products, and the molar masses allow you to convert this ratio into a mass ratio.

To determine the mass of a product, you first need to know the mass of the reactants and the balanced chemical equation for the reaction. You then use the stoichiometric coefficients (the numbers in front of the reactants and products in the balanced equation) to set up a proportion. This proportion allows you to calculate the mass of the product based on the mass of the reactants.

For example, if the balanced equation is 2A + B → C, and you know the mass of A and B, you can calculate the mass of C by setting up the proportion (mass of A / 2) = (mass of B / 1) = (mass of C / 1). You can then solve this equation for the mass of C.

Remember, it's important to ensure your chemical equation is balanced before starting any calculations. This is because the stoichiometric coefficients represent the number of moles of each substance involved in the reaction, which directly relates to their masses.