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Your Turn!

A) What are the percent abundances of the two isotopes found in the mass spectrum below?
Remember that the largest peak is set to 100 %.

B) Based on the mass/charge ratio and the relative abundances, what element is this?

A mass spectrum, with relative abundance in percent on the y axis and mass to charge ratio on the x axis. One peak at a relative abundance of 100% and a mass to charge ratio of 35. A second peak at approximately 30% relative abundance and a mass to charge ratio of 37.
Click here to show answer
A) The smaller peak is approximately one-third of the size of the largest peak. Therefore, the isotope with a mass/charge ratio of 35 comprised about 75 % of the sample, while the isotope with a mass/charge ratio of 37 comprised about 25 % of the sample.

B) These are approximately the relative abundances of the two stable isotopes of chlorine: chlorine-35 and chlorine-37.
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Determining Atomic Weight
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