ISOTOPE

Isotope

Isotopes are variants of a particular chemical element such that, while all isotopes of a given element have the same number of protons in each atom, they differ in neutron number. The term isotope is formed from the Greek roots isos and topos, meaning "the same place". Thus, different isotopes of a single element occupy the same position on the periodic table. The number of protons within the atom's nucleus is called atomic number and is equal to the number of electrons in the neutral atom. Each atomic number identifies a specific element, but not the isotope; an atom of a given element may have a wide range in its number of neutrons. The number of ...

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isotope

Noun

  1. Any of two or more forms of an element where the atoms have the same number of protons, but a different number of neutrons within their nuclei. As a consequence, atoms for the same isotope will have the same atomic number but a different mass number (atomic weight).

Verb

  1. To define or demonstrate an isotopy of (one map with another).


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: isotope
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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