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Question: Why are isotopes electrically neutral?...

Why are isotopes electrically neutral?

Explanation

Solution

Isotopes are the chemical elements that are with the same atomic number but different mass number. The atomic number gives the number of protons and the mass number gives the sum of the protons and neutrons. As the number of electrons and number of neutrons are same in an isotope. Isotopes are electrically neutral.

Complete Step By Step Answer:
Chemical elements are the purest forms of atoms. An atom consists of three subatomic particles like electrons, protons and neutrons. Electrons are negatively charged subatomic particles; neutrons are neutrally charged subatomic particles which means of zero charge. Protons are positively charged subatomic particles.
An isotope is the chemical element with the same atomic number but different mass number. Atomic number is represented by ZZ which represents the number of protons and mass number AA which represents the sum of the number of protons and neutrons. The hydrogen atom has three isotopes namely proton, deuterium and tritium. The isotopes can be written as 11H_1^1H , 12H_1^2H and 13H_1^3H .
In every isotope the charged subatomic particles which are protons and electrons are in equal number. Thus, an isotope is electrically neutral.

Note:
In every isotope there will be an equal number of electrons and protons. Only the neutron number will be different. Carbon has two isotopes namely 612C_6^{12}C and 614C_6^{14}C . In both the two isotopes the number of protons and electrons is six. There is a difference in the number of neutron numbers. In 612C_6^{12}C isotope the number of neutrons was six and in 614C_6^{14}C the number of neutrons was eight.