I am completely lost in chemistry. Everything the teacher says sounds like a different language to me and I am usually really good in the class. Can someone help me do this problem please?
An element "E" is present as 10E (The 10 is like an exponent to the left of the E) with a mass volume of 10.01 amu, and as 11E (again, like an exponent)with as mass value of 11.01 amu. The natural abundances of 10E and 11E are 19.78% and 80.22% respectively. What is the average atomic mass of the element? What is the element.
I don't even know where to start. The parentheses are my own explanation of what the numbers on the sheet actually looks like.
Please help!
10E means the atomic mass is 10 for the unknown element, E. Same nomenclature for 11E.
When you talked about atomic masses in class, I'm sure you heard that the atomic masses shown on the periodic table are the weighted averages of all the isotopes that occur naturally. So just take the weighted average (weighted just means use the percentages listed).
(10.01*0.1978) + (11.01*0.8022) ??
Check my thinking. Check for typos.
This answer has been bothering me all day and I just realized what I had done. I placed the numbers as subscripts instead of superscripts. They should have read as 10E and 11E. Other than that the answer is ok.
Of course, I can help you with that problem! Don't worry, I'll explain it step by step so you can understand how to solve it.
To find the average atomic mass of the element "E," you need to consider the masses of the two isotopes of E and their natural abundances.
Let's break down the problem:
1. Identify the isotopes and their masses:
- The first isotope is 10E, with a mass of 10.01 amu.
- The second isotope is 11E, with a mass of 11.01 amu.
2. Determine the natural abundances:
- The natural abundance of 10E is 19.78% (0.1978 as a decimal).
- The natural abundance of 11E is 80.22% (0.8022 as a decimal).
3. Calculate the average atomic mass:
To calculate the average atomic mass, you can use the formula:
Average atomic mass = (mass of isotope 1 * abundance of isotope 1) + (mass of isotope 2 * abundance of isotope 2)
Plugging in the values, we get:
Average atomic mass = (10.01 amu * 0.1978) + (11.01 amu * 0.8022)
Calculate the expression to find the average atomic mass.
4. Determine the element:
To determine the element, we need to know the symbol associated with the average atomic mass. Unfortunately, the problem does not provide that information. The average atomic mass alone is insufficient to identify the element.
However, once you have the average atomic mass and the symbol of an element, you can compare it to the periodic table to identify the element with the closest average atomic mass.
I hope this helps you understand how to approach this problem in chemistry!