- Dalton reported that seven pounds of Oxygen reacted with one pound of hydrogen to form water, but accurate modern experiment gives eight pounds to one. - Lavoisier reported that water contains Oxygen 5.6 times more than hydrogen by weight. - Dalton assumed that water contains 1 atom of oxygen and 1 atom of hydrogen and concluded that the relative weight of O must be 5.6 times as large as the H atom. - By determining the relative mass we will be able to determine for example that one element has twice the mass of a second element.