Question

A carbon-12 atom has 6 protons, 6 neutrons, and 6 electrons. How many protons does a carbon-14 atom have?

Answer 1

Answer:

A carbon-14 atom has 6 protons, 8 neutrons and 6 electrons. The number 12 or 14 in the name of carbon-12 and carbon-14 refers to their atomic mass.

Explanation:

Those atoms that have the same "atomic number" but differente "atomic  mass" (or atomic weight) are called isotopes.

Atomic number indicates the amount of electrons that an atom has, which matchs with the number of protons it has.

Atomic mass indicates the sum of protons and neutrons that an atom has.

Example with carbon-12:

carbon atomic number = 6 (find this information in a periodic table)

electrons= 6

protons= 6

carbon atomic mass = 12 (find this information in a periodic table)

neutrons= atomic mass - number of protons= 12-6 = 6 neutrons

Using the same analysis for carbon-14:

carbon atomic number = 6

electrons= 6

protons= 6

carbon atomic mass = 14

neutrons= atomic mass - number of protons = 14-6 = 8 neutrons

In this way, carbon-14 is an isotope of carbon-12 because carbon-14 has the same atomic number than carbono-12 but different atomic mass.

Answer 2

An isotope of carbon always has 6 protons - that is the part of the atom which shows it is carbon. If it had a different number of protons, it would be a different element altogether