Our modern versions of Lavoisier’s experiments were designed to help our science
students to understand some of the basic principles of Chemistry by using multimedia
materials to directly measure some physical variables. Additionally, they can learn the
basics of combustion and chemical reactions using our particular set of experiments as a
model to build their own versions of these simple experiments. Understanding the causes
for a final volume of similar size to the initial volume, regardless of a complete or
incomplete combustion of oxygen, is a complex task that is beyond the level of an
introductory course and should be studied using gas chromatography (Vitz 2000; MacNeil
and Volaric 2003) or other advanced techniques like laser spectroscopy (Wolfrum 2001).