What is the difference between an isotope and an atom?

Isotopes are atoms with different atomic masses which have the same atomic number. The atoms of different isotopes are atoms of the same chemical element; they differ in the number of neutrons in the nucleus.

What are the two types of isotopes and how do they differ from each other?

There are two main types of isotopes, and these are radioactive isotopes and stable isotopes. Stable isotopes have a stable combination of protons and neutrons, so they have stable nuclei and do not undergo decay. These isotopes do not pose dangerous effects to living things, like radioactive isotopes.

How do atoms molecules and compounds differ?

Atoms are the thing that make up molecules and compounds. Molecules contain two or more atoms and are held together by covalent bonds, whereas compounds are held together by ionic bonds. The atoms within a compound also must be different from eachother, whereas a molecule can consist of only one element.

What is the difference between an atom and its ion?

Atoms vs. Ions. Atoms are neutral; they contain the same number of protons as electrons. By definition, an ion is an electrically charged particle produced by either removing electrons from a neutral atom to give a positive ion or adding electrons to a neutral atom to give a negative ion.

What is the difference between atomic number?

The major difference between atomic number and mass number is that the atomic number states the number of protons present in an atom whereas, the mass number indicates the total of the number of protons and the number neutrons present in an atom.

Do all isotopes of an element have the same atomic number example?

Isotopes of any given element all contain the same number of protons, so they have the same atomic number (for example, the atomic number of helium is always 2). Isotopes of a given element contain different numbers of neutrons, therefore, different isotopes have different mass numbers.

What is the difference between isotopes?

Isotopes are different forms of atoms of the same element. They are composed of the same number of protons in their nucleus and have the same atomic number. This is because atoms of the same element have the same atomic number.

How do the atomic masses of hydrogen isotopes differ from one another?

They are protium, deuterium, and tritium. All these isotopes have the same number of protons in their nucleus, one proton. Protium has no neutrons; deuterium has one neutron and tritium has two neutrons. Therefore, in hydrogen isotopes, the atomic masses have great differences between them.

Can atoms of the same element be different from each other?

Atoms of the same element can be different. These different atoms of the same element are called isotopes. They are different from each other by having different number of neutrons. Since the neutron number is different, their mass number also differs. However, the isotopes of the same element have the same number of protons and neutrons.

What are the unstable isotopes of a particular chemical element?

Therefore, the unstable isotopes of a particular chemical element are the radioisotopes of that element. The key difference between isotopes and radioisotopes is that isotopes may or may not undergo radioactive decay whereas radioisotopes essentially undergo radioactive decay.