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A strip of magnesium is placed into a test tube with hydrochloric acid to form magnesium chloride and hydrogen. The mass of the reactants is measure to be 12g. After the reaction is complete, the mass of the system is 11.8g. Knowing the Law of the Conservation of Mass, what happened to the rest of the mass?

User Loathing
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1 Answer

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2Mg + 2HCl = MgCl_2 + H_2

The remaining mass must have escaped the test tube as hydrogen is in gaseous form.

User Christopher Orr
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