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Number of protons, electrons, & neutrons from mass number & atomic number

In this post, we will see how to calculate the number of protons, electrons, & neutrons from the mass number & the atomic number of an element.

how to calculate the number of protons, electrons, & neutrons from the mass number & the atomic number of an element?

We have to remember and use the following 2 formulas:

Atomic number = number of protons = number of electrons
Mass number = number of neutrons + number of protons

We will take one example to understand the procedure. Say, we need to find out the number of protons, electrons, and neutrons in an atom of chlorine-37.

We will use the above-mentioned formulas to do this calculation.

The mass number of chlorine-37 is 37. Consulting the periodic table reveals that chlorine’s atomic number is 17.

Therefore we know that:
atomic number = number of protons = number of electrons = 17 protons and 17 electrons

number of neutrons = mass number – atomic number = 37 – 17 = 20 neutrons

Hence, we can summarize that an atom of chlorine-37 is made up of 17 electrons, 17 protons, and 20 neutrons.

Assignment

  1. How many protons, electrons, and neutrons make up an atom of bromine-80?
  2. Write the nuclear symbol for carbon-13.
  3. Write the hyphen notation for the isotope with 15 electrons and 15 neutrons.
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