How do isotopes of an element relate to that particular element?

Answer 1

All the atoms of a particular element have the same number of protons in the nucleus. All Carbon atoms have six protons; all Oxygen atoms have eight protons.

A "neutral" atom will have the same number of negatively-charged electrons as positively charged protons. Some atoms grab electrons from other atoms, becoming negatively charged, or "ionized". Some atoms release electrons to other atoms, becoming positively charged, which is also referred to as "ionized".

Most of the atoms of a particular element will have a particular number of neutrons, but some atoms will have one or two more (or fewer) neutrons than is usual. These atoms of the same atomic charge but different atomic weights are called "isotopes".

For example, ALL Carbon atoms have six protons, and normal Carbon atoms have six neutrons. A few Carbon atoms have seven, eight or more neutrons. Atoms with eight neutrons, plus the six protons, are called "Carbon-14", which is radioactive. This slightly radioactive Carbon 14 occurs naturally, and when living things grow, they take in carbon of all kinds. But when they die, the radioactive Carbon 14 begins to decay at a known rate. Scientists can measure the proportion of "normal" Carbon 12 to the radioactive Carbon 14, and figure out how long ago the plant or animal died.

Answer 2

Ions are charged particles. Any atom that is not neutral because it has loaned or borrowed one or more electrons so that its number of protons and electrons are no longer equal is an ion. An isotope is a term used to distinguish between atoms of the same element that have different numbers of neutrons in their nucleus. Let's look at a couple of examples. If we add table salt, which is sodium chloride (NaCl), to water, it dissociates into sodium and chlorine ions in the solvent (water). These are the Na+ and Cl- ions that are in solution. They are no longer the "original" atoms of sodium and chlorine, but have become ions because their proton to electron ratio is no longer 1:1. The metal uranium has 92 protons in its nucleus, but it has several isotopes. Most uranium that we mine out of the ground is uranium-238, and this isotope has 146 neutrons in its nucleus. But uranium-235, which has 143 neutrons, is the isotope of this element that we need for nuclear applications. The uranium-238 and uranium-235 are two examples of isotopes of the element uranium. We might also touch on the creation of ions by the application of high voltage to keep the physicists happy. In a fluorescent light, the electricity (the voltage), tears electrons out of their original orbitals in the gas inside the tube. The gas atoms are said to be ionized, and as the electrons "fall back" into their original orbitals, they give up energy in the form of light. It is ionized gas that is glowing (emitting light) within the tube. In summary, ions are atoms with unbalanced charges, and isotopes are atoms of the same element with different nutron counts. It could be said that any isotope of any element can be made into an ion. And this could be done by the application of either chemistry or physics principles to unbalance the charges within the atom.

Answer 3

An isotope is another form of an element . It's having the same proton number but different neutron number ( and so , Nucleon number ) . They have almost the same chemical properties , but different physical properties . A common example is the Hydrogen ( Z= 1 , A=1 ) , Deuterium ( Z=1 , A=2 ) and Tritium ( Z=1 , A=3 ) .Those 3 are isotopes of hydrogen . They have different uses and physical properties .

Answer 4

An atom is one 'particle' of an element, composed of protons, neutrons and electrons. The Atomic Mass number of an element is calculated as the sum of the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom.

An isotope is a variation of an element where the atoms have a different number of neutrons (thus a different atomic mass) to the common form of the element. For example, Carbon-14 and Carbon-15 are isotopes of carbon; Carbon-14 has eight neutrons in each atom, and Carbon-15 has nine neutrons in each atom, but they are both carbon atoms (as they have six protons in each atom).

An isotope is a particular kind of atom, based on the number of neutrons it contains. Such as, hydrogen can contain zero, one, or two neutrons. Each of these is a particular isotope of hydrogen, but they are all hydrogen atoms.

Answer 5

Atoms of the same element that contain different numbers of neutrons are called isotopes. Ions are atoms that are no longer neutral because it has gained or lost an electron.

Answer 6

• isotope - different numbers of neutrons in nucleus.
• ion - extra or missing electrons in electron cloud.

Answer 7

An ion is an ionized atom.