Question

An atom has mass number 88 and atomic number 38 how many protons and neutrons does it have?

Answer 1

Hint:The atomic number of the atom is equal to the number of protons. The number of protons present in the atom increases with the increase in the number of electrons. The number of neutrons is calculated by subtracting the mass number with the atomic number.

Complete step by step answer:Given,
Mass number is 88.
Atomic number is 38.
The atoms contain three subatomic particles: protons, neutrons and electrons. The protons are the positively charged species, neutrons are neutral in charge, electrons are negatively charged species.
The center of the atom is known as the nucleus. The nucleus contains protons and neutrons and the electrons revolve around the nucleus in a circular orbit.
The number of protons is equal to the number of electrons. The atomic number of atoms represents the number of protons which increases as the atomic number of the atom increases.
The mass number is the sum of the number of protons and number of neutrons.
Thus, the number of neutrons is calculated by subtracting the number mass number with the number of protons (atomic number Z).
The formula is shown below.
$Number\;of\;neutron = mass\;number - atomic\;number$
As, the given atomic number is 38, so the number of protons is 38.
The mass number is calculated as shown below.
The number of neutrons is calculated as shown below
$ \Rightarrow Number\;of\;neutrons = 88 - 38$
$ \Rightarrow Number\;of\;neutrons = 50$
Therefore, the number of neutrons of the atom is 50.

Note:
The atoms have different isotopes which have the same atomic number and different mass number. The mass number is different for different isotopes. The average atomic weight of the atom is calculated from the average atomic mass of the isotope.