Question

A board has a mass of 750 g. If you ground the whole board down to sawdust, what would be the mass of the pile of sawdust?

a.Exactly 750 g


b.A little more than 750 g


c.Much less than 750 g


d.Much more than 750 g

Answer 1

A. It would stay the exact same mass because your just chopping it down into smaller sections / so if you don’t take away anything it stays the same

Answer 2

As per the law of conservation of mass, mass can be neither created nor destroyed. For example, in an isolated system the mass of the reactants is equal the mass of the products. In other words, the mass of system will not change over time or through any physical or chemical process.

In this case the initial mass of the board is 750 g. Although the system is physically transformed to sawdust by grounding, the mass or the 'quantity' of the board will remain unchanged. Therefore, mass of the pile of sawdust would be 750 g.

Ans: (a)