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
Standard atomic weight Standard atomic weight The standard atomic weight ("A", a relative atomic mass) is the atomic weight ("A") of a chemical element, as appearing and met in the earthly environment. It reflects the variance of natural isotopes (and so weight differences) of an element. Values are defined by (restricted to) the IUPAC (CIAAW) definition of natural, stable, terrestrial sources. It is the most common and practical atomic weight used, for example to determine molar mass. The specified definition is to use many representative sources (samples) from the Earth, so that the value can widely be used as 'the' atomic weight for