Question

How would you find the atomic number, atomic mass, protons, neutrons and electrons for ions and isotopes?

Answer 1

Hint Isotopes are the atoms of a given element which have the same atomic number but differ in their mass number. The number of protons presents in the nucleus is called the atomic number of an element. It is also called nuclear charge. It is represented by the $\text{Z}$ in an element. Atomic mass or mass number is the sum of the number of nucleons and protons. It is represented by capital ‘A’.

Complete Step by step solution
An atomic representation of an element is \[_{\text{Z}}{{\text{X}}^{\text{A}}}\] where ‘X’ is the symbol of element and ‘Z’ represents the atomic number which is always equals to the number of proton and number of electron(if atom is neutral). ‘A’ represents the mass number which is equal to the sum of the number of neutrons and atomic number.
In periodic table atomic number is written on the top of the element while atomic mass is written in the base of the atom.
Atomic number of an element is equal to the atomic number of proton. Atomic number of an element also equals the number of electrons only when the atom is neutral. Number of neutrons is calculated by the difference of mass number and atomic number.
Number of neutron = (A-Z)
For an ion of an element, the number of protons remains the same as the element, but the number of electrons and neutrons differs with the element. While for isotopes nuclear charge of proton number remains same but the mass number, number of neutrons differ in all the isotopes of an element.

Note: Isotopes have the same atomic number or nuclear charge but differ in the number of neutrons in the nucleus. Number of electrons in an ion depends on the charge on the ion. If ions have negative charge its electrons number will be higher than neutral atoms and if ion is positively charged the number of electrons will be smaller than neutral atoms.