Question

The relative atomic mass of naturally occurring chlorine is not a whole number. What is the reason for this?
A.Chlorine atoms can have a different number of neutrons
B.Naturally, occurring chlorine cannot be obtained pure
C.Chlorine is unstable
D.The mass of the electrons has been included

Answer 1

Hint: You can generally locate the overall mass of a component by adding the number of protons to the number of neutrons for the particular isotope of the component you're considering. Note that when an isotope of a molecule is indicated, the number after the name of the component is the general atomic mass.

Complete step by step solution: Generally, the isotope which is a compound having the same number of protons but has a different neutron count but the atomic mass in all the reactions is considered to be of the original compound. But in the case of chlorine, chlorine has two isotopes accessible in Nature. And both of the isotopes are accessible in nature in a high amount therefore the atomic mass of the atom chlorine is taken as the ratio of both of the isotopes.
One has an atomic mass of 35 which frames generally $75\% $ of the normally accessible Chlorine. Another has atomic mass 37 which frames generally $25\% $ of the normally accessible Chlorine. So the reason behind chlorine not having an atomic number in the whole number is that two isotopes of the chlorine atom have a generally different number of neutrons which makes the difference in their atomic number.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Atomic mass (ma) is the mass of a solitary particle, with unit Da or u (the dalton). It characterizes the mass of a particular isotope, which is info esteem for the assurance of the overall atomic mass. The general isotopic mass is explicitly the proportion of the mass of a solitary iota to the mass of a bound-together atomic mass unit.

Hence, the right answer is A.

Note: The atomic mass of a component is the mass of one particle of that component. They can be estimated in a genuinely precise way with the assistance of mass spectrometry. Through trial implies, the mass of one molecule can be estimated comparative with the mass of another.