Question

An isotope of carbon has 8 neutrons. What is the correct hyphenated symbol for this isotope?

Answer 1

Answer:

Carbon-14 or C-14

Explanation:

Since the isotope is a carbon isotope, it means the the atomic number of the isotope is 6.

The atomic number of an element is the proton number.

Therefore, the isotope has a proton number of 6

Now we need to obtain the mass number of isotope in order to write the symbol of the isotope. This is illustrated below:

Mass number = Proton +Neutron

Proton = 6

Neutron = 8

Mass number = 6 + 8

Mass number = 14

Therefore, the symbol of the isotope is carbon-14 or C-14