The chemical symbol is X. It identifies the element. The superscript A represents the mass of the atom. The subscript Z represents the atomic number of the atom. Fill in the blanks to show what particles are represented in A A = number of + number of
electrons
plus number of WHAT
protons
What particles are represented by letter Z
Letter Z represents the number of protons.
To fill in the blanks, we need to identify the particles represented by the superscript A and the subscript Z.
The superscript A represents the mass number of the atom, which is the total number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom.
The subscript Z represents the atomic number of the atom, which is the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom.
Therefore, filling in the blanks:
A = number of protons (Z) + number of neutrons (A - Z)
Protons, neutrons, and electrons are the three main particles that make up an atom. However, in this case, we are only filling in the blanks for the superscript A, which represents the number of protons and neutrons.