Isotope "nuclide", and is still sometimes used in contexts where "nuclide" might be more appropriate, such as nuclear technology and nuclear medicine. An isotope and/or nuclide is specified by the name of the particular element (this indicates the atomic number) followed by a hyphen and the mass number (e.g. helium-3, helium-4, carbon-12, carbon-14, uranium-235 and uranium-239). When a chemical symbol is used, e.g. "C" for carbon, standard notation (now known as "AZE notation" because "A" is the mass number, "Z" the atomic number, and E for element) is to indicate the mass number (number of nucleons) with a superscript at the
Standard atomic weight a more precise value for relative atomic masses (atomic weights) actually found and used in worldly materials. The CIAAW-published values are used and sometimes lawfully required in mass calculations. The values have an uncertainty (noted in brackets), or are an expectation interval (see example in illustration immediately above). This uncertainty reflects natural variability in isotopic distribution for an element, rather than uncertainty in measurement (which is much smaller with quality instruments). Although there is an attempt to cover the range of variability on Earth with standard atomic weight figures, there are known cases of mineral samples which contain elements with