Chemists and CHEMISTRY TEACHERS, please HELP ME!!!?

Question

what is relative mass? Does it have a unit? why or why not?
Please explain and give some examples.

What is Reference mass? Is it the same to the relative mass?
Reference mass are not always given the value unit. The reference substance may be assigned a mass unit of 5. Please calculate the relative mass of a mung bean if a kidney bean is assigned 25 mass units.

When it comes to atoms, the reference particle is the isotope of carbon, C-12, which is assigned exactly 12 mass units. The relative masses of atoms, known as atomic masses (or atomic weights) have been determined. For some elements, these are:

ELEMENT ATOMIC MASS (relative mass)
hydrogen 1.01
carbon 12.01
oxygen 16.00
iron 55.85
gold 196.97
What do these numbers mean?

PLEASE HELP ME..

Answer 1

Relative mass is just that: the mass of something compared to (relative to) the mass of something else. The reference mass is the one you compare all the others to. For example I could use a paper clip as my reference mass. Then I would compare the mass of other objects to the mass of the paper clip (heavier, lighter; 2 times heavier, 3 time lighter, etc.). I don't have to give it a special unit since this is a comparison.

So, all the other element masses are compared to the mass of C-12 (the reference). They are either heavier or lighter. The numbers compare equal numbers of atoms (it doesn't matter how many atoms, as long as they are the same number)to the reference element. Its mass is exactly 12.0000000. The same number of hydrogen atoms have a relative mass of 1.01 (approximately 1/12th the mass of the reference). A sample of carbon is not pure C-12 (it is a mixture of carbon isotopes) so when you get the relative mass of the same number of carbon atoms you get 12.01. The same number of oxygen atoms have a mass of 16.00 etc.

Answer 2

Element atomic mass numbers:carbon-12 is assigned atomic mass number 12. About 0.1% of carbon in nature is carbon-13. So the element atomic weight of carbon is 12.01 (the average). The atomic weights of the other elements are their averages relative to carbon-12 = 12. The numbers mean the atomic weights of the elements.

Answer 3

<---- Chem Teacher

I haven't used those terms before, but here is my understanding of your situation.

Reference, is in reference to the carbon-12 isotope. There is a small amount of non-12 carbon isotopes, so the reference mass of carbon is 12.01 amu. (amu = atomic mass units).
hydrogen has 1/12th the mass of carbon, and is thus 1.01 amu. So on, so on.

Hey... I gave it a shot.