ok i made a post with this question earlier:
A carbon nucleus has six protons and six neutrons. How many electrons would it take to equal the mass of a carbon nucleus?
u responded with this formula:
6*massproton+6*masscarbon=n*masselectron
look up the three masses, solve for n.
An close estimate of n will be 12*1760, since one electron is 1/1760 th of the mass of a nucleon.
I tried for myself and got 7.9X10^28 for some weird reason. is the mass of carbon. .012011?
wut am i doing wrong?
Thank you so much! and if you arnt bobpursley but know how to do this problem please tell me:)
You didn't do something right. Post what you substituted into the formula and someone will check the math/algebra. I looked up the mass of the proton and the mass of the neutron, plugged them into the formula Bob P wrote for you and came up with an answer of about 22,000 (not exact).
i got the answer thank you!
To answer the question of how many electrons would it take to equal the mass of a carbon nucleus, let's break down the steps.
1. First, we need to find the mass of a carbon nucleus by adding the masses of the protons and neutrons it contains. The mass of a proton is approximately 1.0073 atomic mass units (amu), and the mass of a neutron is approximately 1.0087 amu.
So, the mass of a carbon nucleus can be calculated as:
Mass of carbon nucleus = (6 protons * mass of a proton) + (6 neutrons * mass of a neutron)
= (6 * 1.0073 amu) + (6 * 1.0087 amu)
= 12.0448 amu
2. Next, we want to determine how many electrons would be needed to have the same mass as the carbon nucleus. We can set up an equation for this:
Mass of electrons = Number of electrons * mass of an electron
To solve for the number of electrons, we rearrange the equation as follows:
Number of electrons = Mass of electrons / mass of an electron
Now, substituting the values we have:
Number of electrons = (12.0448 amu) / (mass of an electron)
3. The mass of an electron is approximately 1/1760 of the mass of a nucleon (either a proton or a neutron). So, we can estimate the mass of an electron as (1/1760) times the mass of a proton or neutron.
Mass of an electron ≈ (1/1760) * (mass of a proton or neutron)
To calculate the estimated number of electrons:
Number of electrons ≈ (12.0448 amu) / [(1/1760) * (mass of a proton)]
4. Now, to calculate a more accurate value for the number of electrons, we need to know the value of the mass of a proton. The mass of a proton is approximately 1.0073 amu.
Number of electrons = (12.0448 amu) / [(1/1760) * (1.0073 amu)]
By simplifying the expression, we can find the answer.
It seems like you calculated the answer to be 7.9x10^28 electrons, but let's check the math to see where the discrepancy may lie.
Number of electrons = (12.0448 amu) / [(1/1760) * (1.0073 amu)]
= 12.0448 / [(1/1760) * 1.0073]
= 12.0448 / (1.0073 / 1760)
= 12.0448 / 1.8057
≈ 6.6682
So, the estimated number of electrons required to equal the mass of a carbon nucleus is approximately 6.6682.
Please note that this is an estimate, and the actual value may differ slightly due to rounding and the approximate nature of the mass values used.