Question

In this lab, the point was to find out if mass and volume are conserved in a chemical experiment. Water was added to water and measurments were taken. Then, Water was added to acetone and the same measurement were taken. I know that mass is conserved and volume is not. I do not understand the following questions:

Does the order of adding water to acetone or acetone to water change anything? Why or why not?

During this particular experiment, the control for conservation of volume was mixing water with water. What would be another control experiment that could have been done to test conservation of volume?

any help would be appreciated, i'm just trying to understand the concept

Answer 1

Well, in the first question, the only difference I see is that acetone will have more opportunity to evaporate if water is added second, because of the time you take to incorporate the water mass. Other than that, I see no reason why the order should be different.

Other experiments that could be used as controls could involve susbstances of similar density and little reactivity between them, in those, density will stay constant or very closely to constant, as well as volume and mass, which is the purpose of the control.