A student took the weighted average of the isotopes that make up one element. What was the

student trying to determine?

the atomic number of the element

the atomic mass of the element

the number of electrons in the element

the number of neutrons in the element

The answer is the atomic mass of the element

the atomic mass of the element

Explanation:

By taking the weighted averages of the different isotopes of an element, one can calculate the atomic mass of the element.

Using the process of mass spectrometry, one can simply determine the proportion/percentage/fraction by which each of the isotopes of an element occurs in nature. The proportion is called the geonormal abundance. We can then derive the atomic mass of an element which is the average mass of all the isotopes from this method.

RAM = ∑mₓαₓ

where mₓ is the mass of isotope x

αₓ is the abundance of isotope x