A nuclide has 20 electrons and a positive charge. There are 18 neutrons. What is the nuclide?

1 Answer
anor277
Sep 7, 2017

Well the mass number is 39 amu, and we can even quote the element as scandium....

Explanation:

We gots an ion with 20 electrons, with a POSITIVE charge. There are thus 21 nucular protons, i.e. Z=21 (because the neutral element would have 21 electrons). And if Z=21 then clearly a glance at the Periodic Table tells us that we got the element scandium..... And since this nucleus has 18 neutrons we got 39Sc, which is an exceptionally rare scandium isotope, and is likely (momentarily) observed in nuclear reactions of calcium.

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