Franklin was performing an experiment by combining hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide. he measured the mass of his reactant materials to be 35g. the reaction resulted in the production of salt and water. he reported that his products weighed 32g. which best describes the results of franklin’s experiment? no error occurred, some of the products are always lost as heat. an error occurred, the mass of the reactants should equal the mass of the products. an error occurred, the products should weigh more than the reactants. no error occurred, water is not weighed when determining the weight of the products.

Answer is: an error occurred, the mass of the reactants should equal the mass of the products.

This is conservation of mass (mass is never lost or gained in chemical reactions), during chemical reaction no particles are created or destroyed, the atoms are simply rearranged from the reactants to the products.

Balanced chemical rection of hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide:

HCl + NaOH → NaCl + H₂O.

explanation: it gains negative electrons, therefore becoming negatively charged. as charge cannot be created, nor destroyed, only transferred, this leaves the wool positive. now that they have opposite charges, the two items attract.