3D GRIDBUILDING - SCIENCE - CHEMISTRY

ATOMIC WEIGHT

Atomic weight is a dimensionless quantity, the ratio of the average mass per atom of an element to 1/12th the mass of an atom of Carbon-12.


As such, it takes into account the different isotopes in any particular sample.


However, standardized tables of atomic weights are used in all but very specific work, as samples are, perhaps surprisingly, sufficiently constant.


(The terms "relative atomic mass", "atomic mass" and "atomic weight" are often used interchangeably, although they are not, in fact, identical, as can be seen from their definitions.)


Anne Evans