How is an element such as carbon-12 an isotope if it has the same number of protons and neutrons?

Question

I thought isotopes were supposed to have more neutrons than protons.

Answer 1

All atoms of an element have the same number of protons. That is the number on the periodic table by which we identify it, Atomic number. They may have different numbers of neutrons, which will give them a different atomic mass. The mass given is a weighted average of all the isotopes and their abundance. Some atoms have a dozen isotopes. Some have fewer neutrons some have more. The job of the neutrons seems to be to separate the protons, all positively charges, and repellig each other. In the larger atoms the one with more neutrons are more stable. In uranium, number 92, the mass is 238. That means that most atoms have 146 neutrons. But, there is U 232, U235, U236, U238, U239.
Isotopes refers to the various numbers of neutrons. Both C14 and C12 are isotopes.

Answer 2

Isotopes are found within the elements containing different number of neutrons. Take for example the element hydrogen.

There are three "version" of it. One is the standard hydrogen that we know containing only 1 electron (e) and 1 proton (p). The second one, deuterium, contains 1 e, 1 p and 1 neutron. The third one, tritium contains 1 e, 1 p and 2 neutrons.

Another example is the element chlorine. the reason the Mr is 35.5 is due to the 2 isotopes of chlorine. Chlorine 35 with 18 neutrons and Chlorine 37 with 20 neutrons.

I hope this helps

Answer 3

Isotopes are just different variations of the same element... Carbon-12 is the isotope of carbon with the sane number of protons and nuetrons, but carbon-13 is the isotope of carbon with the characteristic 6 protons and 7 nuetrons, hence the designator "13".

And, other guy is a little silly... Carbon-14 isn't a very important isotope of carbon, although it does exist in radioactive settings.

Answer 4

No, an isotope is simply a particle with a particular number of neutrons and a particular number of protons. The number of neutrons can even be less than the number of protons - for instance, in the isotope Helium-3, which has two protons and only one neutron.

Answer 5

Isotopes are elements with the same number of protons and different number of neutrons.

There is Carbon 12 and Carbon 14. So you can call Carbon 12 an isotope in comparison to there being another isotope of carbon, i.e. Carbon 14.

Answer 6

Isotopes occur when there is a different atomic mass due to neutrons. It's the same number of protons and electrons, just a different amount of neutrons. Carbon-12 is not technically an isotope, it's the regular ground state of carbon.

Answer 7

Isotopes have a different number of neutrons; the word is used to describe elements which exist having different numbers of electrons (each atom is an isotope).
Carbon-12 is considered an isotope because it is one of many versions of carbon--the word isotope means a different version (in terms of #neutrons). Carbon-12 just happens to be the most common isotope, but it is still called an isotope because there are other versions.

Answer 8

Isotope refers to any of the various forms of a given element, each having a different atomic mass (due to varying numbers of neutrons), but they all have the same number of protons.

Answer 9

i think the specific question is - is there an atomic difference between carbon and carbon 12? carbon has the same number of neutrons as carbon 12, so what differentiates the two?