Atomic mass molecular masses by comparing the vapor density of a collection of gases with molecules containing one or more of the chemical element in question. In the 20th century, until the 1960s chemists and physicists used two different atomic-mass scales. The chemists used a "atomic mass unit" (amu) scale such that the natural mixture of oxygen isotopes had an atomic mass 16, while the physicists assigned the same number 16 to only the atomic mass of the most common oxygen isotope (O, containing eight protons and eight neutrons). However, because oxygen-17 and oxygen-18 are also present in natural oxygen this led
Quantum number the same system by 8 states that are eigenvectors of the Hamiltonian (i.e. each represents a state that does not mix with others over time), we should consider the following 8 states: In nuclei, the entire assembly of protons and neutrons (nucleons) has a resultant angular momentum due to the angular momenta of each nucleon, usually denoted ". If the total angular momentum of a neutron is "j" = + "s" and for a proton is "j" = + "s" (where "s" for protons and neutrons happens to be ½ again) then the nuclear angular momentum quantum numbers are given