<span>nuclear symbol consists of three parts: 1. the symbol of the
element; 2. the atomic number of the element;3. the mass of the element. for
the above problem, the symbol for potassium is k. it's atomic number is 40. the
number of protons is 19. so we denote this in the following nuclear symbol; 40
k 19</span>
The nuclear symbol is typically used to represent isotopes of an atom. Isotopes are variations of atoms of an element. Isotopes have different numbers of neutrons than other forms of the atom.
The nuclear symbol has three parts: symbol of the element, the atomic number, and the mass number. The general notation for the nuclear symbol of an element is: ᵃₙX where a is the mass number and n (or typically z) is the atomic number.
The mass number, a, is the total number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom.
The atomic number is the number of protons in the nucleus of a neutral atom.
The difference between the mass number and the atomic number is the number of neutrons in the isotope.
Another notation used to represent isotopes is the hyphen notation. This notation uses the name of the element, a hyphen followed by the mass number of the isotope. For example, the isotope ¹²₆C can also be represented using the hyphen notation as carbon - 12.
<em>For the nuclear symbol of potassium, it is necessary to find the atomic number of potassium from the periodic table of elements. This number is equal to 19 which means that potassium has 19 protons. The symbol for potassium is K and its mass number as given in the problem is 40. Therefore, the nuclear symbol is </em><em>⁴⁰₁₉K.</em>
