![]() ![]() For example, oxygen, the most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, is most comfortable having eight neutrons and eight protons in its nucleus (the latter of which defines it as oxygen). Most elements have a preferred, energetically stable form that dominates in nature. The change, long overdue, explicitly acknowledges the fact that most of the 118 elements come in multiple forms of varying weight. Instead of being described by a single fuzzy number, the atomic weights of oxygen, hydrogen, lithium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, silicon, sulfur, chlorine and thallium will now be expressed as intervals. ![]() RESETTING THE TABLE In a new version of the periodic table, the atomic weights of elements with more than one stable form, such as chlorine, are shown as a range, while elements with one stable form, like arsenic, have an exact weight. The adjustments, published online December 12 in Pure and Applied Chemistry, are the first in an overhaul of the atomic weight of almost every element on the periodic table. In acknowledgment of this natural variation, the official weights of 10 chemical elements will no longer be expressed as single numbers, but as ranges. Chlorine atomic mass license#Just as the weight listed on your driver’s license doesn’t necessarily reflect your actual poundage, the official atomic weights of most chemical elements are actually more like ballpark estimates than precise constants. ![]()
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