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QUESTION

# The atomic number of Uranium is 92 and its atomic mass is 238. How many neutrons does the most common isotope of Uranium have?

146

Interestingly enough, the of this isotope is given to you as a whole number.

When this happens, you can say that the isotope's is equal to its .

As you know, an isotope's tells you how many protons and neutrons it contains in its nucleus. If you take Z to be the of the isotope, i.e. the number of protons it has in its nucleus, you can say that

color(blue)("mass number" = A = Z + "no. of neutrons")

Well, if uranium's atomic number is equal to 92, you can say that the most common isotope of uranium will contain

color(blue)("no. of neutrons" = A - Z)

"no. of neutrons" = 238 - 146 = color(green)(146)

The same approach can be applied when the atomic mass is not a whole number. For example, the atomic mass of uranium is actually "238.029 u", not "238 u".

In such cases, you need to round the atomic mass to the nearest integer value. This will give you the mass number of the element's most abundant isotope.

As you can see here, "238.029 u" can be rounded off to "238 u", so the answer is the same

Uranium-238, which is the most common isotope of uranium, contains 146 neutrons in its nucleus