Question

What is the charge for an atom which has 39 neutrons, a mass number of 72, and 36 electrons?

Answer 1

The charge of an atom is determined by its number of protons and electrons.

Given that the atom has 36 electrons, the charge of the atom will be -36.

To find the number of protons in an atom, we need to know its atomic number. The atomic number of an atom is equal to the number of protons it contains. However, this information is not provided in the question.

The mass number of an atom is the sum of its protons and neutrons. In this case, the mass number is given as 72, and there are 39 neutrons.

Therefore, we can calculate the number of protons as follows:

Protons = Mass number - Neutrons
Protons = 72 - 39
Protons = 33

So, the atom has 33 protons and 36 electrons. Therefore, the charge of the atom is:

Charge = Protons - Electrons
Charge = 33 - 36
Charge = -3

The charge of the atom is -3.