An atom is a basic building block of matter around us which consists of fundamental particles: negatively charged electron, positive proton and neutral neutron. The atomic number of an atom is the number of protons in its nucleus. The atomic mass (weight), also called as mass number, is the sum of protons and neutrons in the nucleus.
Atoms of the same element can have same different mass number but same atomic number which means the number of neurons differs in them but number of protons is same. Such different versions of an element are called isotopes. Most atoms have several naturally occurring isotopes but not all isotopes are equally abundant in nature.
For example, the most common isotope of hydrogen has no neutrons at all; there’s also a hydrogen isotope called deuterium, with one neutron and mass 2, and another, tritium, with two neutrons i.e. mass 3.
1H1 2H1 3H1
Hydrogen Deuterium Tritium
Also, carbon has three isotopes: carbon-12, carbon-13 and carbon-14 with mass numbers 12, 13 and 14 respectively. The atomic number of carbon is 6 i.e. every carbon atom has 6 protons, therefore the neutron numbers in these isotopes are 6, 7 and 8 respectively.
12C6 13C6 14C6
Isotopes have several industrial uses. The most commonly known use is in nuclear science to generate nuclear power.
SchoolTutoring Academy is the premier educational services company for K-12 and college students. We offer tutoring programs for students in K-12, AP classes, and college.