Question

Is carbon $ 12 $ an isotope?

Answer 1

Hint :Isotopes are atoms of the same element which have different numbers of neutrons but same number of electrons and protons. They have the same atomic number and they occupy the same position in the periodic table.

Complete Step By Step Answer:
Carbon $ 12 $ is an isotope of the element carbon. It is the more abundant of the two stable isotopes of the element carbon. It is used as the standard from which atomic masses of all nuclides are measured. Carbon $ 12 $ has six protons, six neutrons and six electrons. Before $ 1959 $ , IUPAC used oxygen to define the mole. Chemists defined the mole as the number of atoms of oxygen which had mass $ 16g $ . Later they defined the mole as: the amount of substance which contains as many elementary entities as there are in $ 12 $ gram of carbon $ 12 $ . In $ 1961 $ , the isotope carbon $ 12 $ was selected to replace oxygen as the standard relative to which the atomic weights of all other elements are measured. The hoyle state is an excited, spin less and resonant state of the carbon $ 12 $ isotope. It is produced in the triple alpha process. The hoyle state is necessary for the nucleosynthesis of carbon in helium burning red giant stars.

Note :
Note that an isotope is usually specified by the name of the particular element followed by a hyphen and the mass number. For example, consider the $ {\text{carbon - 12}} $ isotope. Here, first the name of the element is written followed by a hyphen and the mass number $ 12 $ .