A nuclide has 20 electrons and a positive charge. There are 18 neutrons. What is the nuclide?

1 Answer
anor277
Sep 7, 2017

Well the mass number is "39 amu", and we can even quote the element as scandium....

Explanation:

We gots an ion with 20 electrons, with a POSITIVE charge. There are thus 21 nucular protons, i.e. Z=21 (because the neutral element would have 21 electrons). And if Z=21 then clearly a glance at the Periodic Table tells us that we got the element scandium..... And since this nucleus has 18 neutrons we got ""^(39)Sc, which is an exceptionally rare scandium isotope, and is likely (momentarily) observed in nuclear reactions of calcium.

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