Atoms

Question 1

What is atomic number and what symbol is it represented by?

Answer 1

Atomic number, represented by the symbol (Z) Is the number of protons an atom of an element has. Atomic number defines an atom as being a particular element.

Question 2

What is Mass number and what symbol is used to abbreviate it?

Answer 2

Mass number (A) is the total number of protons and neutrons in an atoms nucleus.

Question 3

What is the difference between Mass number and atomic mass?

Answer 3

Mass number is the number of protons and neutrons an atom has

Atomic mass is a weighted average of the masses of all isotopes of an element, it is weighted according to the isotopes abundance.

Question 4

How would you calculate the number of neutrons in an atom?

Answer 4

Mass number(A) - Atomic number(Z) = number of neutrons in the atom

Question 5

What are isotopes?

Answer 5

Atoms with the same atomic number that differ in mass number.
or
Atoms with the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons.
or
Atoms of the same element that have different numbers of neutrons.

Question 6

Are Mass number and atomic mass the same?

Answer 6

No

Question 7

What are Ions

Answer 7

Charged species that are formed when an atom loses or gains electrons.

Question 8

What is the name for a positively charged atom?

Answer 8

A cation.

Question 9

What is the name for a negatively charged atom?

Answer 9

An anion

Question 10

How are anions formed?

Answer 10

An atom gains an electron or electrons.

Question 11

How are cations formed?

Answer 11

An atom loses an electron or electrons.