Final answer:
The mass of atoms on the reactant side of a chemical equation is equal to the mass of atoms on the product side due to the Law of Conservation of Matter. This reflects the fundamental principle that matter is neither created nor destroyed in chemical reactions, leading to a balanced equation with an equal number of atoms for each element on both sides.
Step-by-step explanation:
When considering the mass of atoms on the reactant and product sides of a chemical equation, they are indeed equal due to the Law of Conservation of Matter. This law states that matter cannot be created or destroyed in a chemical reaction. Thus, the correct answer to whether the masses of reactant and product side atoms are equal is (a) Yes, the masses are equal because of the Law of Conservation of Matter.
In a chemical reaction, the total number of atoms of each element must remain constant, reflecting the conservation of matter. For example, if we have a reaction of hydrogen gas combusting with oxygen gas to form water (2 H2 + O2 → 2 H2O), there are four hydrogen atoms and two oxygen atoms on both sides of the equation. This balance exemplifies the law of conservation of matter in action.
To conclude, the observation that the mass of the reactants is equal to the mass of the products indicates that a chemical equation is following the law of conservation of mass. This means that a balanced chemical equation will always have an equal number of atoms for each element on the reactant side as on the product side. Hence for the given question about how many atoms of a specific element are on each side, the answer depends on the particular chemical equation in question, but generally, the number of atoms should be the same on both sides to comply with the law of conservation.