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Antoine Lavoisier Trivia Questions

How much do you really know about Antoine Lavoisier? Below are 8 true or false statements. Click each one to reveal the answer and explanation.

1.

Lavoisier’s law of conservation of mass states that matter is created during chemical reactions.

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Easy
✗ FALSE

His law says mass is neither created nor destroyed in a chemical reaction—it is conserved. This was a revolutionary principle for 18th-century chemistry.

2.

Lavoisier was executed during the French Revolution because he worked as a tax collector.

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Easy
✓ TRUE

He was a member of the hated Ferme Générale tax farm. The revolutionary tribunal sentenced him to the guillotine in 1794, despite his scientific fame.

3.

Lavoisier discovered that water is a compound of oxygen and hydrogen, not a single element.

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Easy
✓ TRUE

In 1783, he and Laplace synthesized water from hydrogen and oxygen, disproving the ancient idea that water was a fundamental element.

4.

Lavoisier believed that heat was a fluid called 'caloric' and never changed his mind.

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Medium
✗ FALSE

He did propose the caloric theory, but later experiments on heat and friction by Rumford and others disproved it. Lavoisier died before these findings emerged.

5.

Lavoisier discovered oxygen by isolating it from air before Joseph Priestley did.

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Medium
✗ FALSE

Priestley actually isolated oxygen first in 1774, but Lavoisier correctly identified it as a distinct element and named it, explaining combustion without phlogiston.

6.

Lavoisier named both oxygen and hydrogen, but hydrogen was originally called 'water-former'.

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Medium
✓ TRUE

Lavoisier coined the name 'oxygen' from Greek for 'acid-former' and 'hydrogen' from 'water-former', replacing earlier terms like 'phlogiston'.

7.

Lavoisier was the first scientist to use a balance in chemical experiments.

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Hard
✗ FALSE

Balances were used earlier by alchemists and scientists like Robert Boyle. Lavoisier’s innovation was systematically applying precise measurements to track mass changes in reactions.

8.

Lavoisier’s wife, Marie-Anne, translated scientific texts and illustrated his lab equipment for his publications.

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Hard
✓ TRUE

Marie-Anne Paulze Lavoisier was a crucial collaborator, translating English works (like Priestley’s) into French and creating detailed engravings of experiments.

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