Chapter 2.1, Problem 4MC

Summary Introduction

To determine:

The relationship between an atom's mass number and an element's atomic weight.

Introduction:

All atoms of an element contain a similar number of protons but not exactly contain the similar number of neutrons. Generally, an isotope is more than one form of a single element that contains different numbers of neutrons but the same number of protons, i.e., atomic number is similar for all isotopes of a single element. A well-known example is a carbon that contains three isotopes such as C-12 (6 protons, 6 neutrons), C-13 (6 protons, 7 neutrons), and C-14 (6 protons, 8 neutrons). The most common isotope is C-12.