The law of conservation of mass states that the mass of a system of substances will always remain constant, regardless of the processes acting inside the system. The matter cannot be created or destroyed, it only changes form. Basically this means that in a closed system : Reactants Masses = Products Masses. This law is non-relativistic - the true (relativistic) situation is somewhat more complicated. The law was first clearly and unambiguously formulated by Antoine Lavoisier, who is often referred to as the father of modern chemistry, although other scientists, such as Mikhail Lomonosov, expressed similar ideas before.
This law finds application as an approximation in cases where relativistic corrections are small - for example in chemistry.
The conservationlaws show that matter and energy can be neither produced from nothing nor reduced to nothing, whether it be through a physical reaction (such as a collision), a chemical reaction (such as combustion) or a nuclear reaction (such as an atomic explosion).
All of the conservationlaws are based upon hundreds of years of empirical evidence and have as their authors some of the most respected scientists of all time.
According to the conservationlaws, the particle number (the sum of all the pluses and minuses) must be the same before the decay reaction as after.
The law of conservation of mass/matter states that the mass of a system of substances is constant, regardless of the processes acting inside the system.
The law of conservation of mass fails for nuclear processes, where the equivalence of matter and energy, and hence conservation of energy, applies.
The law was first clearly and unambiguously formulated by Antoine Lavoisier, who is often referred to as the father of modern chemistry.
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