Question

What is the advantage of using isotope notation instead of hyphen notation?

Answer 1

Isotope notation makes it easier to calculate the numbers of electrons, protons, and neutrons and to write the products of a nuclear reaction.

Answer 2

isotopes notation makes it easier to calculate the numbers of electrons, protons, and neutrons and to write the products of a nuclear reaction.

If you write an element as calcium-40, you can say that it has 40 nucleons. But you can't tell how many protons, neutrons, or electrons it has.

If you write it as

40

20

Ca

, you can easily calculate that it has 20 protons, 20 neutrons, and 20 electrons.