Final answer:
The mass of the products after the reaction will be equal to the mass of the reactants, in this case, 103 grams, due to the law of conservation of mass in a chemical reaction. A minimal discrepancy might occur in nuclear reactions due to mass-energy equivalence.
Step-by-step explanation:
When considering the question "If the reactants have a mass of 103 grams, what would be the mass of the products after the reaction has occurred?", we need to understand the law of conservation of mass. This law states that mass is neither created nor destroyed in a chemical reaction. Therefore, the mass of the products will be equal to the mass of the reactants, assuming the reaction goes to completion and there are no side reactions or losses.
Conservation of mass is a fundamental concept in chemistry that applies to all chemical reactions. If you start with 103 grams of reactants, after the reaction, you would expect to have 103 grams of products. However, in some nuclear reactions, there might be a tiny difference due to the conversion of mass into energy, as explained by Einstein's equation E = mc², but this difference is usually negligible for most chemical reactions.
It is also essential to correctly convert mass to moles when involved in mass-mass calculations within chemical reactions. This conversion allows for the use of the balanced chemical equation to determine the masses of products based on the starting masses of the reactants.