Antoine Lavoisier · Science

Conservation of Mass: The Balance as Law

Lavoisier&rsquo;s foundational principle: in every operation of art or nature, <em>nothing is created</em> - an equal quantity of matter exists before and after, and chemistry becomes an exact bookkeeping in which the accounts must always balance.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that Lavoisier laid it down as an axiom that in all operations of art and nature nothing is created, that an equal quantity of matter exists before and after any experiment, and that chemistry therefore rests on the exact equality of the elements of a body and those of its products. Explain the principle a…

Leads to John Dalton.

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