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Thus, the atomic mass of a carbon-12 atom is 12 Da by definition, but the relative isotopic mass of a carbon-12 atom is simply 12. The sum of relative isotopic masses of all atoms in a molecule is the relative molecular mass. The atomic mass of an isotope and the relative isotopic mass refers to a certain specific isotope of an element.
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 atomic mass, on the other hand, is measured using the atomic mass unit based on the mass of the carbon-12 atom. It is denoted with symbols "u" (for unified atomic mass unit) or "Da" (for dalton). The atomic masses of naturally occurring isotopes of an element determine the standard atomic weight of the element.
Moreover, the weighted average mass can be near-integer, but at the same time not corresponding to the mass of any natural isotope. For example, bromine has only two stable isotopes, 79 Br and 81 Br, naturally present in approximately equal fractions, which leads to the standard atomic mass of bromine close to 80 (79.904 g/mol), [ 10 ] even ...
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 relative abundances of the four stable isotopes are approximately 1.5%, 24%, 22%, and 52.5%, combining to give a standard atomic weight (abundance-weighted average of the stable isotopes) of 207.2(1). Lead is the element with the heaviest stable isotope, 208 Pb.
The molar mass of atoms of an element is given by the relative atomic mass of the element multiplied by the molar mass constant, M u ≈ 1.000 000 × 10 −3 kg/mol ≈ 1 g/mol. For normal samples from Earth with typical isotope composition, the atomic weight can be approximated by the standard atomic weight [2] or the conventional atomic weight.
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]