Question

How do you write the symbol for carbon-14 including atomic mass and number?

Answer 1

Hint: Carbon-14 is the isotope of carbon with a different number of neutrons in the nucleus. Thus, due to this only the mass number will change but the number of protons and the atomic number won’t change.

Complete step by step answer:
- Let us see the general notation given to the elemental symbol;
In the language of chemistry, the notations and symbols are necessary for proper communication. As we know, the carbon-14 is the isotope of carbon. Thus, while notifying we will use the nuclear notation or isotopic notation.
- Nuclear notation;
Firstly, you write the elemental symbol of an element.
Next, you write the mass number as a superscript on the left side.
Then, you write the atomic number as the subscript on the same side.
It will look like as;
\[{{^{A}}_{Z}}X\]
where,
A = mass number i.e. number of neutrons and protons
Z = atomic number i.e. number of protons
X = chemical symbol of an element
Therefore, for carbon-14;
Mass number = 14
Number of protons = atomic number = 6
The nuclear notation will be: ${{^{14}}_{6}}C$ .

Note: Carbon-14 is the radioactive isotope used in radiocarbon dating and radio labelling. We have three types of notation when we describe an element in the form of symbols. They are:
- Notation for periodic table; in which the atomic number is on the top of the elemental symbol whereas the atomic mass will be on the bottom of it.
- Nuclear notation; as discussed above.
- Nuclear notation; in which the atomic number is being omitted.