Chemistry I / Atomic Models and Isotopes
Practice question · Numerical answer

Chlorine is 75.77 % chlorine-35 (mass 35 u) and 24.23 % chlorine-37 (mass 37 u). Compute its average atomic mass in u, to two decimal places.

Hints
  1. Weight each isotope mass by its fractional abundance and add.
  2. Compute 0.7577 x 35 + 0.2423 x 37.
Show the answer

35.48 (answers within ±0.03 count)

Why

0.7577×35+0.2423×37=26.52+8.97=35.480.7577 \times 35 + 0.2423 \times 37 = 26.52 + 8.97 = 35.48 u. The value sits near 35 because the lighter isotope dominates the population.

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