Question

How can we determine the atomic mass of an unknown pure sample of an element without using modern techniques like spectroscopy?

Answer 1

To calculate the atomic mass of an element, you need to know the relative abundance of its isotopes and their masses.

Step-by-step explanation:

You can calculate the atomic mass (or average mass) of an element provided you know the relative abundance (the fraction of an element that is a given isotope), the element's naturally occurring isotopes, and the masses of those different isotopes. We can calculate this by the following equation: