If an atom of carbon 12 has been assigned a relative mass of 24u, determine the average atomic mass of hydrogen relative to this mass.
Set up a proportion.
(12/24) = (1/x)
Can you please explain yourself Dr Bob 222.
To determine the average atomic mass of hydrogen relative to the mass of carbon-12, we need to know the relative mass of a hydrogen atom and the abundance of its isotopes in nature.
The relative mass of a carbon-12 atom is given as 24u. This means that the mass of a carbon-12 atom is 24 times that of one unified atomic mass unit (u).
Now, let's consider the isotopes of hydrogen. Hydrogen has three naturally occurring isotopes: hydrogen-1 (protium), hydrogen-2 (deuterium), and hydrogen-3 (tritium).
The most abundant isotope of hydrogen is hydrogen-1, which has a mass of approximately 1u. Hydrogen-2 has a mass of around 2u, and hydrogen-3 has a mass of about 3u.
To calculate the average atomic mass of hydrogen, we need to consider the relative abundances of these isotopes. Unfortunately, the question does not provide this information. However, typically, the natural abundance of hydrogen-1 is approximately 99.985%, hydrogen-2 is around 0.015%, and hydrogen-3 is practically negligible.
Assuming these abundances, we can calculate the average atomic mass of hydrogen as follows:
(0.99985 * 1u) + (0.00015 * 2u) + (0 * 3u)
= 0.99985u + 0.0003u + 0
= 0.99985u
Therefore, the average atomic mass of hydrogen relative to the mass of carbon-12 (which is defined as 24u) is approximately 0.99985u.