Question

What conclusions can be drawn about the existence of carbon-12, carbon-13, and carbon-14?

Question 5 options:

These are forms of carbon and they accommodate 6 neutrons and 6 electrons but each contains a difference number of protons - 6, 7, and 8 respectively.


These are isotopes of carbon and they all contain 6 protons and 6 electrons but each contains a difference number of neutrons - 6, 7, and 8 respectively.


These are configurations of carbon and they have 6 protons and 6 neutrons but each contains a difference number of electrons - 8, 7, and 6 respectively.


These are ions of carbon and they consist of 6 protons and 6 electrons but each contains a difference number of neutrons - 8, 7, and 6 respectively.

Answer 1

These are isotopes of carbon and they all contain 6 protons and 6 electrons but each contains a difference number of neutrons - 6, 7, and 8 respectively.

^ This is the answer because an isotope changes the atomic mass, NOT atomic number. That means that the neutrons are changed, not the protons.

Answer 2

Answer: These are isotopes of carbon and they all contain 6 protons and 6 electrons but each contains a difference number of neutrons - 6, 7, and 8 respectively.

Explanation: Isotopes of an element have similar number of protons but different number of neutrons.

General representation of an element is given as:
`_Z^A\textrm{X}` where,

Z represents Atomic number (for neutral atom) = number of protons= no of electrons

A represents Mass number = number of protons + number of neutrons

X represents the symbol of an element

Thus
`_6^(12)\textrm{C}` ,
`_6^(13)\textrm{C}` and
`_6^(14)\textrm{X}` all contain same number of protons i.e 6 but contain (12-6) =6, (13-6)=7 and (14-6)=8 neutrons respectively.