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Relative atomic mass (symbol: A r; sometimes abbreviated RAM or r.a.m.), also known by the deprecated synonym atomic weight, is a dimensionless physical quantity defined as the ratio of the average mass of atoms of a chemical element in a given sample to the atomic mass constant.
As such, relative atomic mass and standard atomic weight often differ numerically from the relative isotopic mass. The atomic mass (relative isotopic mass) is defined as the mass of a single atom, which can only be one isotope (nuclide) at a time, and is not an abundance-weighted average, as in the case of relative atomic mass/atomic weight ...
The mass number should also not be confused with the standard atomic weight (also called atomic weight) of an element, which is the ratio of the average atomic mass of the different isotopes of that element (weighted by abundance) to the atomic mass constant. [9] The atomic weight is a mass ratio, while the mass number is a counted number (and ...
The molar mass constant, usually denoted by M u, is a physical constant defined as one twelfth of the molar mass of carbon-12: M u = M(12 C)/12. [1] The molar mass of an element or compound is its relative atomic mass (atomic weight) or relative molecular mass (molecular weight or formula weight) multiplied by the molar mass constant.
The relative atomic mass (a weighted average, weighted by mole-fraction abundance figures) of these isotopes is the atomic weight listed for the element in the periodic table. The abundance of an isotope varies from planet to planet, and even from place to place on the Earth, but remains relatively constant in time (on a short-term scale).
The molar mass of atoms of an element is given by the relative atomic mass of the element multiplied by the molar mass constant, M u ≈ 1.000 000 × 10 −3 kg/mol ≈ 1 g/mol. For normal samples from Earth with typical isotope composition, the atomic weight can be approximated by the standard atomic weight [ 2 ] or the conventional atomic weight.
Atomic weight and relative atomic mass are synonyms. The standard atomic weight is a special value of the relative atomic mass. It is defined as the "recommended values" of relative atomic masses of sources in the local environment of the Earth's crust and atmosphere as determined by the IUPAC Commission on Atomic Weights and Isotopic ...
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]