Question

When adding one atom has 20 protons and a mass of 44. another atom has 20 protons and a mass number of 40. what is the identity of these atoms?

Answer 1

The atoms are both isotopes of calcium (atomic number 20). One isotope has a mass number of 40 (40Ca), which means it has 20 neutrons, while the other isotope has a mass number of 44 (44Ca), which means it has 24 neutrons.

Step-by-step explanation:

When two different atoms have the same number of protons but different mass numbers, they are known as isotopes of the same element. In this case, since both atoms have 20 protons, they are isotopes of the element with the atomic number 20, which is calcium.

The identity of an atom is defined by its number of protons, which is the atomic number. For calcium, the atomic number is indeed 20. The mass number, which is given as 40 and 44 in the two variants, represents the total number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus. To find the number of neutrons in each isotope:

• For the isotope with a mass number of 40: number of neutrons = 40 - 20 = 20.
• For the isotope with a mass number of 44: number of neutrons = 44 - 20 = 24.

Therefore, the isotopes of calcium can be represented as 40Ca (20 protons and 20 neutrons) and 44Ca (20 protons and 24 neutrons).

Answer 2

These atoms are isotopes, they have the same number of protons which means the atoms are of the same ELEMENT, but they have different numbers of neutrons.