Question

How do you determine the atomic mass of an element?

Answer 1

Hint: In the periodic table every element has atomic number and atomic mass. The atomic number is going to be denoted with Z and atomic mass is going to be denoted with A. Atomic number should be written as subscript and atomic mass should be written as superscript to the element.

Complete answer:
- In the question it is asked how we can determine the atomic mass of an element.
- We know that atomic mass is nothing but the sum of the number of protons and number of neutrons which are present in the nucleus of the elements.
- As the element is going to change the atomic number is going to change.
- As the atomic number is going to change the number of protons and number of neutrons are going to change.
- So the atomic mass of an element is going to change with the atomic number of the element.
- For example the atomic mass of the helium is four (number of protons + number of neutrons). But for beryllium the atomic mass is nine (number of protons + number of neutrons).

Note:
We should know the atomic number or number of protons and the number of neutrons which are present in the nucleus to calculate the atomic mass of an element.
For example if the atomic number of an element is 18 and number of neutrons for the particular element 20 then the atomic mass = 18 + 20 = 38.