Question

How do atoms of nitrogen-14 and nitrogen-15 differ from each other in terms of their atomic numbers, mass numbers and atomic structure?

All nitrogen atoms have 7 protons. Explain how atoms of nitrogen-14 and nitrogen-15 differ from each other in terms of their atomic numbers, mass numbers and atomic structure.

Answer 1

Refer to the explanation below.

Explanation:

Well, `""^14N` and `""^15N` are two isotopes of nitrogen, meaning that they have the same amount of protons but different amount of neutrons.

So, the first thing we will notice is that they have the same atomic number.

We know that the mass number of an atom is the sum of its proton number and neutron number. Since the two isotopes have different amount of neutrons, they will have different masses, and we conclude that their mass numbers are different from each other.

Nothing really changes in their atomic structure. They will have different amount of neutrons, there are `7` neutrons in `""^14N` and `8` neutrons in `""^15N`. Aside from that, they will have the same amount of electrons.