Question

Oxygen is denoted as 16O8. How many protons and neutrons does an oxygen atom have?

Answer 1

Answer: The given element has 8 protons and 8 neutrons in it.

Explanation:

General representation in writing an element is given by: $_{Z}^{A}\textrm{X}$

where, X denotes the element

Z denotes the atomic number

A denotes the atomic mass

We know that:

Atomic number = Number of electrons = Number of protons

And, Atomic mass = Number of protons + Number of neutrons   ....(1)

In the given element: $_8^{16}\textrm{O}$

Z = 8 which means number of protons = 8

A = 16

Putting A = 16 in Equation 1, we get:

16 = 8 + Number of neutrons

Number of neutrons = 16 - 8 = 8

Hence, the given element has 8 protons and 8 neutrons in it.

Answer 2

Oxygen-16 atomic number is 8 so it has 8 protons. Its atomic weight is 16 so 16-8 = 8 neutrons.

Hope I helped. :)