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With the discovery of oxygen isotopes in 1929, a situation arose where chemists based their calculations on the average atomic mass (atomic weight) of oxygen whereas physicists used the mass of the predominant isotope of oxygen, oxygen-16. This discrepancy became undesired and a unification between the chemistry and physics was necessary. [13]
The atomic mass (relative isotopic mass) is defined as the mass of a single atom, which can only be one isotope (nuclide) at a time, and is not an abundance-weighted average, as in the case of relative atomic mass/atomic weight. The atomic mass or relative isotopic mass of each isotope and nuclide of a chemical element is, therefore, a number ...
The standard atomic weight (A r °(Cu)) for copper is the average, weighted by their natural abundance, and then divided by the atomic mass constant m u. [ 1 ] The standard atomic weight of a chemical element (symbol A r °(E) for element "E") is the weighted arithmetic mean of the relative isotopic masses of all isotopes of that element ...
The relative atomic mass (a weighted average, weighted by mole-fraction abundance figures) of these isotopes is the atomic weight listed for the element in the periodic table. The abundance of an isotope varies from planet to planet, and even from place to place on the Earth, but remains relatively constant in time (on a short-term scale).
The longest-lived of these isotopes, and the most relevantly studied, are 90 Sr with a half-life of 28.9 years, 85 Sr with a half-life of 64.853 days, and 89 Sr (89 Sr) with a half-life of 50.57 days. All other strontium isotopes have half-lives shorter than 50 days, most under 100 minutes.
The mass number gives an estimate of the isotopic mass measured in atomic mass units (u). For 12 C, the isotopic mass is exactly 12, since the atomic mass unit is defined as 1/12 of the mass of 12 C. For other isotopes, the isotopic mass is usually within 0.1 u of the mass number.
The mass of an atom or a molecule is referred to as the atomic mass. The atomic mass is used to find the average mass of elements and molecules and to solve stoichiometry problems. The name "atomic mass" is used for historical reasons, and originates from the fact that chemistry was the first science to investigate the same physical objects on ...
All other isotopes have half-lives less than 4 days, most less than an hour. There are also many isomers , the longest-lived of which is 120m1 Sb with half-life 5.76 days. Except for beryllium , antimony is the lightest element observed to have isotopes capable of alpha decay ; 104 Sb is seen to undergo this mode of decay.