Solveeit Logo

Question

Question: What is the atomic mass of an atom that has \(6\) protons, \(6\) neutrons and \(6\) electrons?...

What is the atomic mass of an atom that has 66 protons, 66 neutrons and 66 electrons?

Explanation

Solution

Atomic mass of an element is the average weight of the atom of an element. Although the SI unit of mass is kilogram, atomic mass is measured in atomic mass unitatomic{\text{ }}mass{\text{ }}unit or DaltonDalton, where 11 Dalton is defined as 12\dfrac{1}{2} of the mass of one carbon-1212 atom. The protons and neutrons present in the nucleus account for nearly all of the total mass of the atom.

Complete answer:
We know the atomic mass of an atom is calculated by adding up the number of protons and neutrons present in the nucleus.
Given here, the number of protons is 66 and the number of neutrons is also 66.
\therefore Atomic mass==number of protons ++ number of neutrons=6+6=12 = 6 + 6 = 12.
Therefore, the atomic mass of an atom that has 66 protons, 66 neutrons and 66 electrons is 1212 amuamu.

Note:
While calculating the atomic mass of an atom, electrons are excluded because its weight is almost 10001000 times less than that of proton and neutron and is considered negligible. And another reason is to maintain stability while transferring any element from one orbital to another during the formation of compound electrons.