Lab 2B: Atomic Mass of Candium

The purpose of this lab was to determine the average atomic mass of the so fresh, so new, recently discovered element candium. The average atomic mass of an element is the weighted average of the masses of each isotope of the element. An element could have multiple isotopes, meaning each atom has a different amount of neutrons, so the average atomic mass is used on the periodic table to show the most common atomic mass of the element. 

We found the average atomic mass of candium to be 1.25 grams. We counted 95 regular candium isotopes, 11 peanut candium isotopes, and 22 pretzel candium isotopes. We found the average masses to be 0.85g, 2.4g, and 2.4g, respectively. We then calculated the average atomic mass using the equation (decimal abundance*mass) + (2nd decimal abundance*2nd mass) + etc. 

1. Ask a group nearby what their average atomic mass was. Why would your average atomic masses be different than theirs?

Another group's average atomic mass was 1.49g. Our average atomic masses could be different because each group received candium isotopes from a large bag of the three isotopes combined. This means that we would all possibly have different amounts of each isotope, which would alter our average atomic masses after plugging the numbers into the equation.

2. If larger samples of candium were used, would the differences between your average atomic mass and others' be bigger or smaller?

If larger samples were used, the differences between our average atomic mass and others' would be smaller, because of the larger amount of different isotopes in the assortment of candium. If there were more isotopes, an additional peanut candium wouldn't make as much of a difference in the average atomic mass as compared to if there were only four peanut candiums in the sample. Therefore, even if the groups had varying amounts of each isotope, these differences wouldn't make as much of a difference in the final average atomic masses.

3. If you took any piece of candium from your sample and placed it on the balance, would it have the exact average atomic mass that you calculated? Why or why not?

If you took any piece of candium from the sample and placed it on the balance, it would not have the exact average atomic mass that was calculated. This is because the average atomic mass is the average of every isotope of candium - therefore, it doesn't only represent one isotope, but represents the average of all three.

4. Draw a rough sketch of what candium's square would look like on the periodic table.