Why do isotopes of carbon have different mass numbers?

Each carbon atom has the same number of protons (6), which is equal to its atomic number. Isotopes are atoms that have the same atomic number but different mass numbers due to a change in the number of neutrons. The three isotopes of carbon can be referred to as carbon-12 (C126), carbon-13 (C136), and carbon-14 (C146).

How are the isotopes of carbon different?

Isotopes of an element share the same number of protons but have different numbers of neutrons. There are three isotopes of carbon found in nature – carbon-12, carbon-13, and carbon-14. All three have six protons, but their neutron numbers – 6, 7, and 8, respectively – all differ.

What are the 3 most common isotopes of carbon?

Carbon occurs naturally in three isotopes: carbon 12, which has 6 neutrons (plus 6 protons equals 12), carbon 13, which has 7 neutrons, and carbon 14, which has 8 neutrons. Every element has its own number of isotopes.

Is carbon-13 a radioactive isotope?

Both 12C and 13C are called stable isotopes since they do not decay into other forms or elements over time. The rare carbon-14 (14C) isotope contains eight neutrons in its nucleus. Unlike 12C and 13C, this isotope is unstable, or radioactive.

What do we use carbon-13 for?

C-13 is used for instance in organic chemistry research, studies into molecular structures, metabolism, food labeling, air pollution and climate change. C-13 is also used in breath tests to determine the presence of the helicobacter pylori bacteria which causes stomach ulcer.

What are some similarities and differences between C 12 and C 13?

By far the most common isotope of carbon is carbon-12 (12C), which contains six neutrons in addition to its six protons. The next heaviest carbon isotope, carbon-13 (13C), has seven neutrons. Both 12C and 13C are called stable isotopes since they do not decay into other forms or elements over time.

What is the difference between C 12 and C 14?

The difference between carbon-12 and carbon-14 is the number of neutrons in each of their atoms. Atoms of carbon-12 have 6 neutrons, while atoms of carbon-14 contain 8 neutrons. A neutral atom would have the same number of protons and electrons, so a neutral atom of carbon-12 or carbon-14 would have 6 electrons.

What are 2 examples of isotopes?

Examples of radioactive isotopes include carbon-14, tritium (hydrogen-3), chlorine-36, uranium-235, and uranium-238. Some isotopes are known to have extremely long half-lives (in the order of hundreds of millions of years). Such isotopes are commonly referred to as stable nuclides or stable isotopes.

What are the two types of isotopes?

Isotope Facts All elements have isotopes. There are two main types of isotopes: stable and unstable (radioactive). There are 254 known stable isotopes.

How do you find the mass number of isotopes?

The mass number of an isotope is determined by the number of neutrons in the isotope plus the number of protons. For instance Carbon-13 is an isotope of carbon. The “13” is the mass number of the isotope. So, in this example, 13 = #protons + #neutrons.

What are examples of isotopes and their uses?

Uses of Stable Isotopes. Scientists performing environmental and ecological experiments use stable isotopes of oxygen, hydrogen, sulfur, nitrogen and carbon. For example, in geochemistry , scientists study the chemical composition of geological materials such as minerals and rocks.

What is the average atomic mass of an isotope?

Average atomic mass = f 1 M 1 + f 2 M 2 +… + f n M n where f is the fraction representing the natural abundance of the isotope and M is the mass number (weight) of the isotope. The average atomic mass of an element can be found on the periodic table, typically under the elemental symbol.

What are the important uses of isotopes?

Isotopes are important. Isotopes are being used to spike into the blood or even localised muscles or hormones etc to determine the pathways or reactions patterns they follow.