Molecular mass Molecular mass Relative molecular mass or molecular weight is the mass of a molecule. It is calculated as the sum of the relative atomic masses of each constituent element multiplied by the number of atoms of that element in the molecular formula. The molecular mass of small to medium size molecules, measured by mass spectrometry, determines stoichiometry. For large molecules such as proteins, methods based on viscosity and light-scattering can be used to determine molecular mass when crystallographic data are not available. Both atomic and molecular masses are usually obtained relative to the mass of the isotope C (carbon 12),
Relative atomic mass which is then compared to the atomic mass of carbon-12. This comparison is the quotient of the two weights, which makes the value dimensionless (no unit appended). This quotient also explains the word "relative": the sample mass value is considered relative to that of carbon-12.. It is a synonym for atomic weight, though it is not to be confused with relative isotopic mass. Relative atomic mass is also frequently used as a synonym for "standard" atomic weight and these quantities may have overlapping values if the relative atomic mass used is that for an element from Earth under defined conditions.