Question

What is the total charge of the nucleus of a carbon atom?

Answer 1

Hint: Carbon word comes from the Latin word ‘carbo’ which means ‘coal’. Carbon exists in many allotropic forms some of them are diamond, graphite, buckminsterfullerene or buckyball, amorphous carbon, single-walled carbon molecule. Carbon atoms belong to the \[{14^{th}}\] group and \[{2^{nd}}\] period of the periodic table and have a symbol as C.

Complete answer:
The nucleus is the region in an atom where the whole mass is concentrated; it is present in the center of the atom; the particles inside the nucleus are held strongly by nuclear force which is the strongest short-range force.
The atomic number is the total count of protons present in the nucleus. The carbon nucleus contains a total of 6 protons every proton has a charge of \[ + 1\]. The nucleus also contains \[6\]neutrons but as neutrons do not have any charge on them they do not contribute to the total charge present in the nucleus.
Thus, the carbon atom has a total charge of \[ + 6\] in the nucleus.

Note:
Total count of proton and neutron is defined as atomic mass, the mass of proton and neutron are the same. Thus, the mass of carbon atoms comes to be \[12\]. As an electron has a negligible mass, it does not contribute to the mass of an atom.