Final answer:
The b) woman's conclusion is incorrect because the Law of Conservation of Mass is not refuted by the evaporation of water. The water turned into steam and escaped into the air, which explains the decrease in mass. In a closed system, the mass would have been conserved.
Step-by-step explanation:
The woman's conclusion that her investigation refutes the Law of Conservation of Mass is incorrect. During the boiling of water, the mass of water decreases as it is converted to steam. The law of conservation of mass states that mass cannot be created or destroyed in a chemical reaction. In this case, the water is undergoing a physical change from liquid to gas, and the missing mass has actually been converted to vapour, which has escaped into the air.
There is a common misunderstanding that the amount of substance measured in grams should remain constant even when a substance changes state, such as water boiling and turning into steam. However, the law accounts for the entire system, which would include the mass of the steam that has evaporated and is no longer in the pot. To correctly test the law, the system would need to be closed, meaning that no mass escapes. In practical applications, if we had a sealed system where none of the steam could escape, then after the water boiled and even if all of it turned into steam, the total mass within the sealed system would remain the same.