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MrPickle
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I was looking at my periodic table in Chemistry today and noticed that Chlorine's relative mass was 35.5, how can it have half an amu when it has 17 electrons? That's not 0.5amu, is it?
fedaykin said:I'm not entirely certain, but I think binding energies also play a role in the apparent weight of an element in bulk. The effect may be to small to bother considering for most purposes.
Mentallic said:Somewhere in the range of 1/2500 mass.
The half-AMU mass of chlorine is approximately 35.5 atomic mass units (AMU). This means that a chlorine atom has an average mass of 35.5 times the mass of a hydrogen atom.
The mystery lies in the fact that the atomic mass of chlorine is not a whole number, as is the case for most elements. Instead, it has a decimal value of 35.5, which is half of a whole number. This raises questions about the nature of chlorine and how it fits into the periodic table.
The half-AMU mass of chlorine is determined through experiments using a mass spectrometer. This instrument measures the mass-to-charge ratio of atoms, allowing scientists to determine the atomic mass of an element.
The half-AMU mass of chlorine is caused by the presence of two stable isotopes: chlorine-35 and chlorine-37. These isotopes have slightly different masses, with chlorine-35 being more abundant. When the masses of these isotopes are averaged, it results in the half-AMU mass of chlorine.
Chlorine's half-AMU mass has a negligible effect on its chemical properties. This is because the difference in mass between the two isotopes is very small, and the chemical reactions of chlorine are largely determined by the number and arrangement of its electrons, rather than its mass.