An oxygen atom with 10 neutrons Express your answer as an isotope.
The Correct Answer and Explanation is:
Correct Answer: Oxygen-18 or ¹⁸O
An oxygen atom with 10 neutrons is represented as the isotope Oxygen-18, written as ¹⁸O.
Explanation
To identify an isotope correctly, we need to understand what isotopes are. Isotopes are atoms of the same element that have the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons. Since the number of protons defines the element, all oxygen atoms have exactly 8 protons. The number of neutrons, however, can vary.
The mass number of an atom is the sum of its protons and neutrons. For oxygen, if there are 8 protons and 10 neutrons, the total mass number is:
8 (protons) + 10 (neutrons) = 18
Therefore, this isotope of oxygen has a mass number of 18 and is written as Oxygen-18 or ¹⁸O. It can also be expressed in nuclear notation as:
₈¹⁸O
In this notation, the number at the top left (18) is the mass number and the number at the bottom left (8) is the atomic number, which equals the number of protons.
Oxygen has several stable isotopes, and the most common are:
- Oxygen-16 (¹⁶O): 8 protons and 8 neutrons
- Oxygen-17 (¹⁷O): 8 protons and 9 neutrons
- Oxygen-18 (¹⁸O): 8 protons and 10 neutrons
Oxygen-18 is a stable isotope, although it is less abundant than Oxygen-16. It has important applications in environmental and climate science. Scientists often study the ratio of Oxygen-18 to Oxygen-16 in ice cores and ocean sediments to infer past temperatures and climate conditions. This is possible because the two isotopes behave slightly differently during processes like evaporation and condensation.
In summary, an oxygen atom with 10 neutrons is called Oxygen-18, and it is a stable and naturally occurring isotope of oxygen used in various scientific fields.
