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Thus, the atomic mass of a carbon-12 atom is 12 Da by definition, but the relative isotopic mass of a carbon-12 atom is simply 12. The sum of relative isotopic masses of all atoms in a molecule is the relative molecular mass. The atomic mass of an isotope and the relative isotopic mass refers to a certain specific isotope of an element.
The exact mass of an isotopic species (more appropriately, the calculated exact mass [9]) is obtained by summing the masses of the individual isotopes of the molecule. For example, the exact mass of water containing two hydrogen-1 ( 1 H) and one oxygen-16 ( 16 O) is 1.0078 + 1.0078 + 15.9949 = 18.0105 Da.
For other isotopes, the isotopic mass is usually within 0.1 u of the mass number. For example, 35 Cl (17 protons and 18 neutrons) has a mass number of 35 and an isotopic mass of 34.96885. [7] The difference of the actual isotopic mass minus the mass number of an atom is known as the mass excess, [8] which for 35 Cl is –0.03115.
In 1803 John Dalton proposed to use the (still unknown) atomic mass of the lightest atom, hydrogen, as the natural unit of atomic mass. This was the basis of the atomic weight scale. [12] For technical reasons, in 1898, chemist Wilhelm Ostwald and others proposed to redefine the unit of atomic mass as 1 / 16 the mass of an oxygen atom. [13]
The mass of an atom or other particle can be compared more precisely and more conveniently to that of another atom, and thus scientists developed the dalton (also known as the unified atomic mass unit). By definition, 1 Da (one dalton) is exactly one-twelfth of the mass of a carbon-12 atom, and thus, a carbon-12 atom has a mass of exactly 12 Da.
Nominal mass is a term used in high level mass spectrometric discussions, it can be calculated using the mass number of the most abundant isotope of each atom, without regard for the mass defect. For example, when calculating the nominal mass of a molecule of nitrogen (N 2) and ethylene (C 2 H 4) it comes out as. N 2 (2*14)= 28 Da C 2 H 4
The gram-atom is a former term for a mole of atoms, and gram-molecule for a mole of molecules. [7] Molecular weight (M.W.) (for molecular compounds) and formula weight (F.W.) (for non-molecular compounds), are older terms for what is now more correctly called the relative molar mass (M r). [8]
It can be converted into a measure of mass (with dimension M) by multiplying it with the dalton, also known as the atomic mass constant. Among various variants of the notion of atomic weight (A r, also known as relative atomic mass) used by scientists, the standard atomic weight (A r °) is the most common and practical.