On what law is stoichiometry based, and how do the calculations support this law?

1 Answer
anor277
Aug 24, 2017

#"Garbage in equals garbage out."#

Explanation:

See this old answer and links.

Every chemical reaction that HAS EVER BEEN PERFORMED obeys conservation of mass. You start with #1*g#, #10*g#, #1*kg#, #10*"tonnes"# of reactant from all sources and at most you are going to get #1*g#, #10*g#, #1*kg#, #10*"tonnes"# of product.

In practice, you are not even going to get that. Losses invariably occur on handling. And note that this is an experimental result, that is rationalized by our particle view of chemical reactivity. We don't have to rely on calculations; we do have to rely on experiment.

Related questions
See all questions in Stoichiometry
Impact of this question
3896 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License