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Atomic masses are the weighted average of all the isotopes of an element. The average is based on the relative abundance of each isotope. Let say we have an element with two isotopes, the first isotope has a mass of 6 and the second has a mass of 8. If we took a straight average of the atomic masses then the element would have a mass of 7. But a weighted average based on the abundance of each isotope would be different (unless both isotopes are found to be in equal amounts ie. both 50% abundance)

If the isotope with a mass of 6 had a relative abundance of 75% (meaning that 3/4 of all atoms of that element had a mass of 6) then the other isotope would have a relative abundance of 25% (relative abundance must add up to 100%). The Atomic Mass of the elements would be calculated by multiplying each isotopes mass my the relative abundance and then adding the two results together.

75% (6) = 4.5

25% (8) = 2.0

4.5 + 2.0 = 6.5 The atomic mass for this element would have an atomic mass of 6.5 amu (atomic mass units)

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