While studying chemical reactions and conservation of matter, Sarah's class conducted a variety of experiments. Sarah and her lab partner found the mass of a wax candle and placed the candle in a flask. The students lit the candle and let it burn to completion. All that was left was wax and charred candle wick. Per their teacher's instructions, the students found the mass of the products. Their data can be seen in the data table.
Formulate a hypothesis the students could test to explain why the experiment did not support the law of conservation of matter.
1 answer
One hypothesis that the students could test is: "The apparent loss of mass during the candle burning experiment was due to the release of gases such as carbon dioxide and water vapor into the air, which were not accounted for in our measurements." The students could conduct further experiments to capture and measure the gases released during the combustion of the candle, and compare the total mass of all products (wax, charred wick, and gases) to the mass of the original candle to see if conservation of matter holds true.