According to the law of conservation of mass, if 24.8 grams of NH4NO3 decomposes and 13.6 grams of N2O is formed, how many grams of H2O must simultaneously be formed?

Question

The compound NH₄NO₃ can be decomposed to form N₂O and H₂O. This can be represented at the atomic level by a chemical equation:

1. NH₄NO₃  N₂O + 2H₂O

According to the law of conservation of mass, if 24.8 grams of NH₄NO₃ decomposes and 13.6 grams of N₂O is formed, how many grams of H₂O must simultaneously be formed?

Answer 1

The Law of Conservation of Mass states that matter is neither created nor destroyed; therefore, if the decomposition reaction started with 24.8 g of NH4NO3 and 13.6 g of N2O was formed, the remaining 11.2 g of mass would be attributed to the H2O since there are no other products created in this reaction.

Your answer is 11.2 g H2O.