First of all, this violates the law of the
conservation of matter.
Matter has mass, is bounded in local space, and is conserved (what might be called the "law of
conservation of matter").
(This would violate the 1st Law of
Conservation of Matter and Energy)
The law of continuity, or the continuity equation, to which it is sometimes referred, is founded on the law of
conservation of matter. The law of
conservation of matter states that the mass of substances in a closed system will remain constant, regardless of what processes are acting inside the system.
The first part of the book covers basics of the
conservation of matter and energy, thermodynamics, and biochemistry, leading to an exploration of the properties that allow ecosystems to grow and thrive in spite of natural constraints, such as biodiversity, hierarchical organization, and high buffer capacity.
The remaining chapters address science concepts sorted by the areas of "Earth Systems Science and Technology," "Biological Sciences," and "Physical Sciences." For each concept in these areas, such as "
Conservation of Matter," the author provides: 1) the purpose of the related story, 2) common misconceptions about the concept held by children, 3) a list of related concepts, 4) content background explanations, 5) related national standards, 6) advice on how to use the stories with K-4 students, 7) advice on how to the use the stories with 5th- to 8th-graders, and 8) additional citations for reading resources regarding the topic.
Because the amount of atmospheric carbon is well known and
conservation of matter requires a balanced global carbon budget, this previously unaccounted for source of carbon to the atmosphere implies the existence of an additional continental carbon sink such as higher rates of biomass accrual in forests.
It focuses on only one challenging benchmark on
conservation of matter from the Benchmarks for Science Literacy (AAAS, 1993): No matter how substances within a closed system interact with one another, or how they combine or break apart, the total weight of the system remains the same.