Relative atomic mass
Relative atomic mass
Formula
Ar = Σ(isotope mass × % abundance) / 100
Real World
Chlorine's relative atomic mass of 35.5, not a whole number, puzzled early chemists until Frederick Soddy's discovery of isotopes in 1913 explained that natural chlorine is a mixture of Cl-35 and Cl-37.
Exam Focus
Relative atomic mass has no units — do not write g mol⁻¹; that applies to molar mass, not Ar.
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