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Carbon-12 is of particular importance in its use as the standard from which atomic masses of all nuclides are measured, thus, its atomic mass is exactly 12 daltons by definition. Carbon-12 is composed of 6 protons , 6 neutrons , and 6 electrons .
Relative atomic mass is determined by the average atomic mass, or the weighted mean of the atomic masses of all the atoms of a particular chemical element found in a particular sample, which is then compared to the atomic mass of carbon-12. [10] This comparison is the quotient of the two weights, which makes the value dimensionless (having no ...
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.
For example, the relative isotopic mass of a carbon-12 atom is exactly 12. For comparison, the atomic mass of a carbon-12 atom is exactly 12 daltons. Alternately, the atomic mass of a carbon-12 atom may be expressed in any other mass units: for example, the atomic mass of a carbon-12 atom is 1.992 646 882 70 (62) × 10 −26 kg.
The atomic mass constant, denoted m u, is defined identically, giving m u = 1 / 12 m(12 C) = 1 Da. [ 3 ] This unit is commonly used in physics and chemistry to express the mass of atomic-scale objects, such as atoms , molecules , and elementary particles , both for discrete instances and multiple types of ensemble averages.
The mass number gives an estimate of the isotopic mass measured in atomic mass units (u). For 12 C, the isotopic mass is exactly 12, since the atomic mass unit is defined as 1/12 of the mass of 12 C. For other isotopes, the isotopic mass is usually within 0.1 u of the mass number.
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.
Approximate definition of a mole based on 12 grams of carbon-12. The Avogadro constant was historically derived from the old definition of the mole as the amount of substance in 12 grams of carbon-12 (12 C); or, equivalently, the number of daltons in a gram, where the dalton is defined as 1 / 12 of the mass of a 12 C atom. [9]