ATOMIC MASS

To demonstrate an understanding of
the mole concept in relation to
Avogadro’s number and mass.
 Ms. Lilia sells shelled peanuts in a store.
But she meets customers asking for 150
peanuts, another for 750 peanuts, and
another for 2,000 peanuts. Obviously, it will
take Ms. Lilia a very long time to count the
peanuts. What would be another way to
count them?
Ms. Lilia takes 20 peanuts and
weighs them. She finds out
that 20 peanuts weigh 32 g.
How much then will each
peanut weigh?
Hence the weight of 150
peanuts would be:

It will be easier to weigh the peanuts

than to count them. Now, 960 g is
appropriately how many peanuts?
Is it possible to
use the same
procedure to count
atoms?
 Whether it is peanuts or mongo
beans or candies or atoms, the
procedure should be the same. The
problem, however, is atoms are very,
very small and it is not possible to see
them and count them individually to get
the average mass. We need to look for
another way to get the average mass of
the atom.
 Experiments have shown that
atoms have different masses
relative to one another. It is
possible to make a relative scale if
one atom is chosen as the
reference or standard atom against
which the masses of the other
atoms are measured.
By international agreement, the
reference atom chosen is the C-12
isotope which contains six protons and
six neutrons. By definition, one atom of
C-12 has a mass of exactly 12 atomic
mass units (amu).

One amu, therefore, is one-twelfth

(1/12) the mass of a C-12 atom.
A mass spectrometer is
used to experimentally
compare and determine
the masses of atoms to a
very high degree of
accuracy.
The atomic mass of Cu-63 is
62.93 amu.

⮚ This means that relative to C-12,

one atom of Cu-63 is 62.93/12 or
5.244 times the mass of a
C-12 atom.
One atom of Se-77 is 6.410
times as heavy as an atom of
C-12.

❖ What is the atomic mass of

Se-77?
AVERAGE ATOMIC MASS
The periodic table provides the average atomic mass
which takes into account the different isotopes of an
element and their relative abundances. It is not a simple
average that is taken but a weighted average.

If C has six protons and six neutrons, why is the

relative atomic mass of carbon given as 12.01 amu
and not 12 amu? There are no individual atoms of
carbon with a mass of 12.01 amu.
Isotopes of elements occur in different
abundances. Some are more abundant than others.
Chlorine has two isotopes. The natural abundance
of Cl-35 is 75% while that of Cl-37 is 25%. This
means that if you have 100 atoms of chlorine, 75 of
them will be Cl-35 and 25 of them will be Cl-37.
Magnesium, on the other hand, has three isotopes
with varying abundances: Mg-24, Mg-25, and Mg-
26, having 78.99%, 10.00%, and 11.01% abundance,
respectively.
 For carbon, the natural abundance of C-12 is
98.90% while that of C-13 is 1.10%. The atomic
mass of C-13 has been determined to be 13.00335
amu while that of C-12 is exactly 12 amu.
Now, we calculate the average atomic mass of
carbon:
Average atomic mass
= (atomic mass of C-12)(% abundance of C-12)
+ (atomic mass of C-13)(%
abundance of C-13)

= (12.0000 amu)(.9890) + (13.00335 amu)(.0110)

Practice exercises:
1. From the periodic table, look up the
average atomic mass of the following
elements: Co, Be, Al, Zn.

2. Copper has two stable isotopes with the

following masses and % abundances: Cu-63
(62.93 amu, 69.09% abundance) and Cu-65
(64.9278 amu, 30.91% abundance).

Calculate the average atomic mass of copper.

3. An element consists of an isotope with
mass of 10.0129 amu and 19.91%
abundance, and another isotope with
mass of 11.0093 amu and 80.09%
abundance.

Calculate the average atomic mass of

this element.

Refer to the periodic table and identify

the element.
AVERAGE MOLECULAR MASS
(also referred to as Molecular Mass)
- is the sum of the average atomic masses of
the atoms in the molecule.
Answer:

1. What is the molecular mass of carbon dioxide, CO2?

2. Determine the molecular mass of the following molecules:
a. Water, H2O
b. Methane, CH4
AVERAGE FORMULA MASS
(also referred to as Formula Mass)
- is the sum of the average atomic masses of
the atoms in the ionic compound.
Answer:

1. What is the formula mass of sodium chloride, NaCl?

2. What is the formula mass of magnesium chloride, MgCl2?
Check-up quiz
1.From the periodic table, look up the
average atomic mass of bromine, Br.
2. How much heavier is an atom of Br
relative to an atom of carbon?
3. Which element in the periodic table
has an average atomic mass that is
about ten times that of fluorine?
 Element A consists of isotope A-6
with natural abundance of 7.5% and a
mass of 6.0151 amu, and isotope A-7
with natural abundance 92.5% and mass
of 7.0160amu.
4. Calculate the average atomic mass of
element A.
5. Identify Element A.
 Naphthalene has the molecular
formula C8H10.
6. How many elements make up one
molecule of naphthalene? What are they?
7. What is the molecular mass of
naphthalene?

8. What is the formula mass of potassium

chloride, KCl?