Lavoisier was a French chemist who is considered the "father of modern chemistry" and credited for establishing the Law of Conservation of Mass.
The Law of Conservation of Mass states that matter can be changed from one state into another, mixtures can be separated or made, and pure substances can be decomposed, but the total amount of mass remains constant throughout. Subsequently, we cannot create or lose matter.
Lavoisier considered the properties of metals and carried out experiments that allowed him to measure the mass of the metal, as well as the mass of the air surrounded the reaction.
Through his experiment, in which he simply heated mercury in a confined volume of air (shown at left), he established the Law of Conservation of Mass. Consequently, chemistry became an exact science based on careful and methodical measurement.
http://chem.wisc.edu/deptfiles/genchem/sstutorial/Text1/Tx14/tx14p1.GIF
The Law of Conservation of Mass states that matter can be changed from one state into another, mixtures can be separated or made, and pure substances can be decomposed, but the total amount of mass remains constant throughout. Subsequently, we cannot create or lose matter.
Lavoisier considered the properties of metals and carried out experiments that allowed him to measure the mass of the metal, as well as the mass of the air surrounded the reaction.
Through his experiment, in which he simply heated mercury in a confined volume of air (shown at left), he established the Law of Conservation of Mass. Consequently, chemistry became an exact science based on careful and methodical measurement.
http://chem.wisc.edu/deptfiles/genchem/sstutorial/Text1/Tx14/tx14p1.GIF