Welcome back to another document walkthrough! Today, I thought we’d take a look at a non-math example, like chemistry. The document we’ll be using is “Finding Average Atomic Mass”. Before we get too into it, I’d like to define some terms. Average atomic mass is defined as the weighted average mass of all isotopes of an element. An elemental isotope can be thought of as a “version” of the element – The same element at its core, but having different weight or other properties. This is due to having the same number of protons, but a different number of neutrons.

This document is, of course, about finding that average atomic mass. See the picture below for our problem, which states the element, the isotopes, and their separate masses and relative abundance.

The average atomic mass can then be calculated using sum notation. To calculate, take the weighted mean of the isotopes’ atomic masses, as shown in the overview section of the Average Atomic Mass document.

Once you’ve tried solving the problem yourself, take a look at the answer in group four, or one of the practice problems in group five. We have three examples on this topic (Average Atomic Mass Example 1, Average Atomic Mass Example 2, and Average Atomic Mass Example 3), so take a look at them all!

I hope you enjoyed learning just a bit of chemistry today, and let us know in the comments if there are any documents you’d specifically like to see explained, or any topics you’d like us to talk about!