Isotopes

Prerequisites for this topic are that you need to know about atoms and elements.

We might get scared hearing the term isotopes. Actually, isotopes are nothing but atoms that have the same number of protons and electrons but the number of neutrons is different.

Variation of the number of neutrons does not result in the change of element. Atoms of the same element but with different numbers of neutrons are called the isotopes of the element.

Since Neutrons contains zero charges, a variation of their numbers changes nothing for elements except for its mass. Isotopes are identified with their masses, which is the total number of electrons and protons.

Fact: The only element whose isotopes have specific names is hydrogen.

there is no fixed amount of how many isotopes an element can have. Hydrogen has the least amount of isotopes and xenon and caesium has the most number of isotopes.

Just like there are stable isotopes, there is also a number of unstable isotopes. Unstable isotopes generally decay over time, turning into another isotope or even into another element. These unstable isotopes are usually radioactive, that is when they decay, they emit energy.

Tin has 10 stable isotopes which make him the winner of the ‘Element with most stable isotope’ Award!

Deuterium, an isotope of Hydrogen which has one neutron can create water with Oxygen. Water formed by using Deuterium is called Heavy water as it’s mass is twice of normal Hydrogen.

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