Does potassium metal have isotopes?

1 Answer
anor277
May 9, 2016

Potassium does indeed have isotopes. The weighted average of the individual isotopes is the average atomic mass.

Explanation:

This site reports that there are 24 isotopes of potassium. Of course, since it is potassium, #Z=19# (why?).

The common isotopes are #""^39K (93.3%)#, and #""^41K (6.7%)#. If we take the weighted average of these 2 major isotopes we get very close to the average atomic mass, #39.0983" amu"#.

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