Question

What do you understand by the term ‘isotopes’?

Answer 1

• Isotopes are the atoms of the same chemical elements with different mass numbers.
• They will have the same number of protons and electrons.
• They will have different numbers of neutrons.
• Example are protium (${}_1{}^1\mathrm{H}$) , deuterium (${}_1{}^2\mathrm{H}$) and tritium (${}_1{}^3\mathrm{H}$) .Three of them are isotopes of hydrogen. They have different mass numbers but same atomic number.
• Mass number is the sum of the number of protons and neutrons in an atom.