Question

An atom has 27 protons and 32 neutrons. Which of the following symbols is correct for this atom?

Answer 1

59Co
To identify the element, look at the atomic number, which is the amount of protons. This is cobalt.
The notation used above to write the element is mass number-chemical symbol, and so to find the mass number, simply add the number of protons to the number of neutrons. This gives you 59. Therefore, the correct symbol is 59Co