Consider carbon-12, carbon-13 and carbon-14 (the numbers indicate atomic mass). Which of these forms of carbon is an isotope?
A) Carbon-12
B) Carbon-13
C) Carbon-14
D) none are isotopes
E) all are isotopes
2007-10-29 08:50:53 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
All of these are isotopes. Isotopes are when there are different 'sub species' of elements, which have different numbers of neutrons, and one 'sub species' is called an isotope.
2007-10-29 08:54:53 · answer #1 · answered by jlao04 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
C-12, C-13 and C-14 are all isotopes of carbon. the number of protons in the nucleus determines the element, i.e. all C atoms have 6 protons in their nucleus (if there is anything but 6 protons, then the element is not carbon)
besides protons, there are also neutrons in the nucleus of all atoms (only one isotope of hydrogen has no neutrons) and it is the number of neutrons that makes one isotope of an element different from another isotope of the same element
C-12 has 6 protons and 6 neutrons
C-13 has 6 protons and 7 neutrons
C-14 has 6 protons and 8 neutrons
note that the number of protons + number of neutrons gives you the mass number of the isotope
additional: after seeing some of the other answers, just want to help clarify two things ... just because C-12 is by far the most abundant isotope of carbon (most carbon found in nature is C-12) it is still just that ... an isotope of carbon. it is also not important whether a particular configuration of 6 protons and some number of neutrons is will stay together forever as long as they can be assembled for some arbitrarily short amount of time ... this is just the difference between stable and unstable isotopes
2007-10-29 09:03:23 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
From these answers, I would choose E because technically they are all different masses, which are isotopes, however, Carbon-12 normally isn't classified as an isotope, but rather the standard carbon mass.
2007-10-29 08:56:00 · answer #3 · answered by jcann17 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
E all are isotopes carbon-14 is the only radioactive
2007-10-29 08:57:37 · answer #4 · answered by maussy 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i think maybe the answers to the question are wrong. C-12 is not an isotope and C13 and C14 both are. C13 is stable so i would say the answer is C because C12 and C13 are stable but i think the answer should be both C13 and C14 are isotopes.
2007-10-29 08:58:46 · answer #5 · answered by licensetoil 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The answer is E, all are isotopes.
2007-10-29 08:59:28 · answer #6 · answered by THC123 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
E ) is right , all are isotopes
2007-10-29 08:58:06 · answer #7 · answered by sami_dodeen 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
B, all have the same nr of protons
2016-04-11 01:13:36 · answer #8 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋