Question

if the atomic mass unit you were defined to be one fifth of the mass of an atom of C12 what would be the atomic weight of Nitrogen in AMU? atomic weight of an unconventional scale is 14 of N​

Answer 1

Answer:

So, let's say that you pick a phosphorus atom, more specifically a phosphorus-31 atom, since that is the only stable isotope of phosphorus, as the base for the unified atomic mass unit, or

u

.

The main idea here is that the relative atomic masses of two atoms do not change when the unified atomic mass unit changes because the atoms themselves do not change as a result of that.

This means that you can use the current definition of

u

to find the ratio that must exist between a phosphorus-31 atom and a carbon-12 atom for different values of

u

.

So, the current definition of

u

is

1

12

th

of the mass of a neutral carbon-12 atom. Since

u

is defined as

1 u = 1 g/mol

you can use the current atomic masses of phosphorus-31 and carbon-12 to find the ratio that must exist between these two atoms