explain this statment: "mass and atoms are conserved in every chemical reaction, but moles will not neccessarily be conserved."

Question

anonymous · Answer

Huh, that is weird, because I know that matter cannot simple disappear, and each side of an equation must be equal, but moles to are simply a unit of measurement.

Maybe it is saying that the moles are a great number of particles, so the whole mole may not be their, and may be broken apart in different ways to fit the same mass. 

Hopefully that makes sense, and I am not sure what it means, but that is my guess.

aaronq · Answer

AB -> A  + B

i just doubled the # of moles