Calculating Average Atomic Mass
11th Grade · Science · 35 min
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Learning Objective
I can calculate the average atomic mass of an element given the masses and abundances of its isotopes.
- 1
Atomic mass is a weighted average of the masses of different isotopes of an element.
- 2
Isotopes of an element have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons.
- 3
To calculate the weighted average, multiply the mass of each isotope by its percent abundance (expressed as a decimal) and then add those values together.
