Final answer:
The main difference is that a container with carbon-12 exclusively contains the carbon isotope with 6 neutrons. Generic carbon contains a mix of isotopes including carbon-12, carbon-13 with 7 neutrons, and a trace of carbon-14. Carbon-12 is more commonly used in biological processes due to its abundance and identical chemical behavior compared to other isotopes.
Step-by-step explanation:
The difference between a container filled with carbon-12 and one filled with generic carbon is that the container with carbon-12 exclusively contains the carbon isotope with a mass number of 12 and an atomic number of 6, meaning it has 6 protons and 6 neutrons. A container with generic carbon would contain a mix of carbon isotopes, typically carbon-12, carbon-13, and a trace amount of carbon-14. Each isotope of carbon has a different number of neutrons; for instance, carbon-12 has 6 neutrons, and carbon-13 has 7 neutrons.
When considering their application in biological processes such as glucose synthesis, organisms more commonly use carbon-12 due to its greater abundance in nature and identical chemical behavior compared to carbon-13. Although isotopes like carbon-13 and carbon-14 differ in mass, they do not differ in their chemical reactivity, because that property is governed by the number of electrons, which is the same in all three isotopes since they all have 6 protons.