The Atom and Nuclear Chemistry
Isotopes and Subatomic Particles
Electrons and Quantum Mechanics
Average Atomic Mass
If the average atomic mass of boron is , what is the percent abundance of boron-11 (mass of ) if the only other isotope is boron-10 (mass of )? Given the formula for average atomic mass:
Therefore in summary, we are given the following known quantities
With the following unknown quantities
And asked to find the percent abundance of boron-11 (). Therefore our equation is
We have two unknowns, but luckily we can use the following fact/relation and therefore express the percent abundance of boron-10 in terms of the percent abundance of boron-11
Therefore
But we aren't done, we have to compute significant figures.
Therefore, we round our answer to 2 sig figs, yielding