basicchemistrynotes

  LAWS OF CHEMICAL COMBINATIONS The combination of elements to form compounds is governed by the following five basic laws. 1)  Law of Conservation of  Mass It states that matter can neither be created nor destroyed.This law was put forth by Antoine Lavoisier in 1789. He performed careful experimental studies for combustion reactions for reaching to the above conclusion. This law formed the basis for several later developments in. chemistry Infact, this was the result of exact measurement of masses of reactants and products, and carefully planned experiments performed by Lavoisier . 2)Law of  Definite Proportions This law was given by, a French chemist, Joseph Proust. He stated that a given compound always contains exactly the same proportion of elements by weight. Proust worked with two  samples of cupric carbonate— one of which was of natural origin and the other was synthetic one. He found that the composition of elements present in it was same for bot