The following statements pertain to the development of the theory of combustion by the French chemist Lavoisier in the eighteenth century. Match the statement with the appro-priate step (observation, hypothesis, experiment designed to test hypothesis) in the scientific method (a) A metal is burned in a closed container, and the change in mass of the solid and volume of the gas is measured.

Video transcript

Hey everyone, we're being asked to identify whether the statement is an observation a law or a theory. So let's go ahead and define these first. So, an observation is basically what it is. We're observing something a law is based on observations, except we're saying what is occurring for a theory. This is also based on observations, but theories are telling us why something is occurring. So now that we have these defined, let's go ahead and look at our statements. So for a we have an example of an inert or nonreactive gas is argon. So this statement is going to be a law because we're stating what's happening, and we've done countless observations that have proven that argon is in fact a nonreactive gas and looking at the the arrangement of electrons in an element dictates its reactivity. This statement is going to be a theory. And that's because we're explaining why an element is reacting the way it is, and that's because of the arrangement of electrons. For C we have the chemical reactivity of elements follows a repeating pattern when they are listed in increasing atomic mass. This statement is going to be a law and that's because we've noticed this through observations and we're only stating what is happening, not why this is occurring. And for d we have flooring is a highly reactive gas. So this would be the same reasoning as our statement. A and so this would be a law. And that's because we've observed that flooring is in fact a highly reactive gas. So this is going to be our final answers for this question. So I hope that made sense and let us know if you have any other questions.