Isotopes Flashcards

All 5 cards in this deck

What are isotopes?

Atoms of the same element with the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons.

How can you tell from two nuclear symbols that the atoms are isotopes of the same element?

e.g. $^{12}_{6}\text{C}$ and $^{14}_{6}\text{C}$

Same atomic number (bottom number) but different mass number (top number) — both have $6$ protons, so they are isotopes of carbon.

True or false? Isotopes of the same element have different numbers of electrons.

False. They have the same number of electrons; only the neutron number differs.

True or false? Isotopes of an element have different mass numbers.

True. Extra neutrons increase the mass number.

What does a number written after an element's name, as in carbon-14, tell you?

The mass number (total protons + neutrons).