Isotope …, "m" are the atomic masses of each individual isotope, and "x", …, "x" are the relative abundances of these isotopes. Several applications exist that capitalize on properties of the various isotopes of a given element. Isotope separation is a significant technological challenge, particularly with heavy elements such as uranium or plutonium. Lighter elements such as lithium, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen are commonly separated by gas diffusion of their compounds such as CO and NO. The separation of hydrogen and deuterium is unusual because it is based on chemical rather than physical properties, for example in the Girdler sulfide process.
Standard atomic weight way, the more precise original interval is fully covered. Examples: Twelve chemical elements have a standard atomic weight that is defined not as a single number, but as an interval. For example, hydrogen has . This notation states that the various sources on Earth have substantially different isotopic constitutions, and uncertainties are incorporated in the two numbers. For these elements, there is not an 'Earth average' constitution, and the 'right' value is not its middle (that would be 1.007975 for hydrogen, with an uncertainty of (±0.000135) that would make it just cover the interval). However, for situations where a less