1. Tardigrade
  2. Question
  3. Chemistry
  4. Oxygen occurs in nature as a mixture of isotopes 16O, 17O and 18O having atomic masses of 15.995 u, 16.999 u and 17.999 u and relative abundance of 99.763 %, 0.037 % and 0.200 % respectively. What is the average atomic mass of oxygen?

Question Error Report

Thank you for reporting, we will resolve it shortly

Back to Question

Q. Oxygen occurs in nature as a mixture of isotopes $^{16}O, ^{17}O$ and $^{18}O$ having atomic masses of $15.995\, u, 16.999\, u$ and $17.999\, u$ and relative abundance of $99.763\%, 0.037\%$ and $0.200\%$ respectively. What is the average atomic mass of oxygen?

Some Basic Concepts of Chemistry

Solution:

Average atomic mass of oxygen
$=\frac{\left(99.763\times15.995\right)+\left(0.037\times16.999\right)+\left(0.200\times17.999\right)}{100} $
$= 15.999\, u$