To determine the atomic mass of copper (Cu) considering its isotopic distribution, you need to calculate the weighted average of the atomic masses of its isotopes, taking into account their relative abundances.
Given that copper has two isotopes with the following natural abundances:
Now, let's find the atomic masses of these isotopes:
The atomic mass of 65Cu is approximately 64.928 atomic mass units (u). The atomic mass of 63Cu is approximately 62.929 atomic mass units (u).
To calculate the atomic mass of copper, we use the formula:
Atomic mass of copper = (Mass of isotope 1 × Abundance of isotope 1) + (Mass of isotope 2 × Abundance of isotope 2)
Plugging in the values:
Atomic mass of copper = (64.928 u × 0.3092) + (62.929 u × 0.6908) = 20.078336 u + 43.4062032 u = 63.4845392 u
Therefore, the atomic mass of copper is approximately 63.4845 atomic mass units.