chapter 2

Question 1

explain the atom

Answer 1

• all substances are made up of the atom
• consists of protons, neutrons and electrons
• electrons are around the nucleus in shells

Question 2

what are the charges and mass of the subatomic particles

Answer 2

• protons have a mass of 1 and a charge of +1
• neutrons have a mass of 1 and a charge of 0
• electrons have a mass of 1/1836 and a charge of -1

Question 3

what are elements

Answer 3

• they are substances made up of only one type of atom
• they are organized on the periodic table
• the periodic table lists them in increasing atomic number

Question 4

what are isotopes

Answer 4

• they are a different variation of the same element
• they have the same number of protons and electrons but a different number of neutrons
• different isotopes of an element will react in the same way

Question 5

what is relative isotopic mass

Answer 5

• the mass of an isotope compared with 1/12th of the mass of an atom of carbon-12

Question 6

what is relative atomic mass

Answer 6

• the weighted mean mass of an isotope compared to 1/12th of an atom of carbon-12

Question 7

what is a mass spectrometer

Answer 7

• a piece of equipment that can be used to determine the percentage abundance of the isotopes

Question 8

how does a mass spectrometer work

Answer 8

• the sample is added through the sample inlet
• the ion is then vaporized and turned into cations in the ionization area
• they are passed through the acceleration area and sped up to the same kinetic energy
• they pass through the drift region where their times are different, the lighter ions will travel faster and the heavier ions will travel slower
• they then hit the ion detector which can tell what ion it is using a magnetic field