Lavoisier was the first scientist to really use the balance in experimenting. He made an important observation that the transmutation of water to earth was not possible, which further rejected Aristotle’s theories. He experimented with and named Oxygen, proving its importance in combustion. Using experiments where he would burn matter, he also proved that the mass of the reactants of a reaction equal the mass of the products. This showed that although matter can change its state in a chemical reaction, the mass of the matter never changes. This led to his Law of Conservation of Mass.
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Balance...Antoine Lavoisier was among the first to use the balance in order to understand more about certain materials and their particles.
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Conservation of Mass...States that mass is neither created nor destroyed in chemical reactions.
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