Isotope electrons in the neutral (non-ionized) atom. Each atomic number identifies a specific element, but not the isotope; an atom of a given element may have a wide range in its number of neutrons. The number of nucleons (both protons and neutrons) in the nucleus is the atom's mass number, and each isotope of a given element has a different mass number. For example, carbon-12, carbon-13 and carbon-14 are three isotopes of the element carbon with mass numbers 12, 13 and 14 respectively. The atomic number of carbon is 6, which means that every carbon atom has 6 protons, so that
Atomic spectroscopy sample. The relationship between the concentration of atoms, the distance the light travels through the collection of atoms, and the portion of the light absorbed is given by the Beer–Lambert law. In atomic emission spectroscopy, the intensity of the emitted light is directly proportional to the concentration of atoms. Atomic mass spectrometry is similar to other types of mass spectrometry in that it consists of an ion source, a mass analyzer, and a detector. Atoms' identities are determined by their mass-to-charge ratio (via the mass analyzer) and their concentrations are determined by the number of ions detected. Although considerable research