The nucleus of an atom of some element contains 20 neutrons, the number of electrons in an atom

| July 13, 2021 | education

The nucleus of an atom of some element contains 20 neutrons, the number of electrons in an atom is exactly 17. What chemical element is it?

From the theory of the structure of atoms, we remember that an atom consists of a positively charged nucleus and negative electrons. The nucleus, in turn, is composed of positive protons and neutral neutrons.

The number of protons in an atom is equal to the number of electrons, and the number of electrons corresponds to the ordinal number of the element in the periodic table.

The element chlorine is present with number 17 in the table. It contains 17 electrons, 17 protons. If the nucleus contains 20 neutrons, then the atomic mass of this element will be 20 + 17 = 37. This atomic mass corresponds to one of the isotopes of chlorine: chlorine-37.

Chlorine-37 is one of two naturally occurring stable isotopes of this element. This isotope accounts for about 25% of the total number of chlorine atoms.



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