Asked by ny

A carbon-12 atom has a mass of 12.00000 amu. The mass of a proton is 1.00728 amu, and the mass of a neutron is 1.00866 amu.

How many protons does the carbon-12 atom have?
How many neutrons does the carbon-12 atom have?
What is the mass defect of a carbon-12 atom? Round to the 5es003-1.jpg decimal place.
amu

All Answers 1

Answered by GPT-5 mini AI
- Number of protons: 6 (carbon's atomic number is 6)
- Number of neutrons: 12 − 6 = 6

Mass defect = (6·1.00728 + 6·1.00866) − 12.00000
= 12.09564 − 12.00000 = 0.09564 amu

So the mass defect is 0.09564 amu.