How do you use the law of conservation of mass to explain why a chemical equation must be balanced?

Atoms have mass, and conservation of mass states that mass cannot be created or destroyed.

Consider a chemical equation as a mathematical one, where the arrow represents an equals (=) sign, demonstrating that the values on either side of the arrow are equal.

An equation that is out of balance would essentially depict atoms as vanishing or appearing out of thin air, which is against the conservation of mass law.

The law of conservation of mass states that mass is neither created nor destroyed in a chemical reaction. Therefore, the total mass of reactants must equal the total mass of products in a chemical equation. Balancing a chemical equation ensures that the number of atoms of each element on the reactant side equals the number of atoms of the same element on the product side, maintaining the conservation of mass.