Laws of Matter Flashcards
Who is Antoine Lavoisier?
He is the father of modern chemistry
What did Antoine Lavoisier do?
He debunked the phlogiston theory, which led to the discovery of oxygen, which led to the Law of Conservation of Mass.
What is the phlogiston theory and how/why was it debunked?
The phlogiston theory stated that phlogiston is an invisible and weightless substance that makes something combustible. They believed that more phlogiston = more combustible. However, people noticed that an object gains mass when it is burned, which disproved this theory. It was later found that oxygen was what made objects combustible, and is also what was giving the objects additional mass as it burned.
What is the law of conservation of mass?
This law stated that, in a chemical reaction, the mass of substances produced is equal to the mass of the substances reacted. Mass of reactants = mass of products. This law is the basis for balancing chemical equations.
What did Joseph-Louis Proust do?
He is the one who conducted the copper carbonate experiment which led to the law of definite proportions. He heated copper carbonate and noticed that its proportions always stayed the same.
What is the law of definite proportions?
Any sample of a given compound will always be composed of the same elements in the same proportion by mass. (ex. 100g and 100kg of water will always be 89% oxygen and 11% hydrogen)
What did John Dalton do?
He proposed the law of multiple proportions by observing patterns from other scientists.
What is the law of multiple proportions?
For elements that can form different compounds, such as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, the masses of the 2nd element (in this case, the oxygen) that can be combined with a fixed mass of the first element (carbon) are always in a ratio of small whole numbers (1:1, 1:2).
Basically, the two elements will always combine in SIMPLE small whole number ratios only, only 1:1, 2:4, 2:3, … etc.)
