ShmoopTube

00:03

Here's your shmoop du jour, brought to you by Neutrons. Not just Jimmy -- the entire Neutron family.

00:10

Here's a table showing the number of protons and neutrons in six different atoms.

00:14

Using this table, which of the following is an isotope of Atom 1?

00:21

And here are your potential answers...

00:25

So... the only thing we really need to know to answer this question is...

00:28

...what's an isotope?

00:30

Maybe we've heard of carbon-14... a form of carbon

00:33

that helps scientists find the age of formerly living things...

00:36

...like dinosaurs, which are totally cool...

00:41

...through radioactive dating.

00:43

Carbon-14 is an example

00:44

of an ISOTOPE of an element. An isotope of an element is something that

00:48

has the same atomic number as the element does on the periodic table,

00:55

but a different number of neutrons.

01:05

The atomic number on the periodic table is also equivalent to the number of protons,

01:10

or positively charged particles, an element has...

01:15

Really...the number of neutrons doesn't matter too much...it's "neutral," after all...

01:19

So for this question, we're looking for an isotope of Atom 1...or in other words, the

01:24

atom that has the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons.

01:28

And what do you know... only Atom 3 fits the parameters. So our answer's A.

01:32

As in, "Atom's apple."

Full Transcript