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I was studying chemical equilibrium and my teacher taught me the law of mass action given by Guldberg and Waage. But is there any proof of this law? I did not find the proof anywhere. I searched all over the internet. The proof is not in my textbooks, not did my teacher tell me anything about the proof. It would be of great help if someone could provide the proof. I just want to know from where the law came as I do not feel satisfied just rote learning a formula and not knowing from where it came.

Nisarg Bhavsar
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user281837
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    What "proof"? It was originally found just by weighing substrates and products, that you can do yourself. Now underlying molecular structures are known, so what, you want "proof" that atoms exist? – Mithoron Apr 19 '21 at 14:51
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    I just surfed through Wikipedia and there's an entire 'History' section describing how all of this was found out. Sigh. – Desai Apr 19 '21 at 15:34
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    Mithoron and Desai please don't be angry. I am just a poor student who is trying to understand chemistry. Please forgive me if I asked something wrong. – user281837 Apr 19 '21 at 16:56
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    You cannot "prove" things about the natural world the way you can prove mathematical theorems. You can only say that something is consistent with every experimental result we have so far and consistent with other "laws" that have been identified. – Andrew Apr 19 '21 at 17:01
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    We are not angry. We understand the eagerness. Moreover we are much more friendly than we seem. We are all just learners at different levels. We discourage effortless questioning and not the questions. Teaching new members the rules of the site is a way we encourage self-confidence, presentability and etiquette. And that's one reason we may seem a little intimidating compared to other SE members. Moreover, structuring your questions allows self-analysis and improved thought process while improving readability/comprehension. – Desai Apr 19 '21 at 17:08
  • You may also want to look through other posts on the site dealing with the topic: https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/search?q=law+of+mass+action – Buck Thorn Apr 19 '21 at 19:48
  • If it's a law. There is no proof. – Joaquin Torrens Apr 20 '21 at 01:31
  • @joaquintorrents Distinction between law and rule in science is often vaque. Most such "laws" are not fundamental like conservation laws or even mathematical theorems. They cannot be proven, just can be confirmed or refuted agreement with experimental values. Only their mathematical consistency can be proven. – Poutnik Apr 20 '21 at 02:58

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