Next Lesson in the Unit

We are now learning about the mass of subatomic particles. We know that protons and neutrons = 1 amu, while electrons = 1/1840 amu. We defined an isotope as having the same number of protons but different number of neutrons, a proton as a part of the atom that gives an element its identity, and an electron as a part of the atom that gives an element its chemical reaction. We then learned how the mass number is the sum of protons and electrons while the atomic number is the number of protons. It is also helpful to know that protons and electrons are always equal. After doing some examples with that, we moved on to Atomic Mass, and how it is the weighted averages of all the isotopes of the element. Most elements have decimals as part of their masses. The last thing we learned was very important. We learned an equation for calculating the total average mass of an element given its percent abundance and its mass. The equation is just [(Mass)(%)]+[(Mass)(%)] for however many elements there are. That is one thing I need to study and keep in my head.