Why is there an atomic mass unit?

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Why is there an atomic mass unit?

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Answer 1 · 2018-05-28T08:48:42

Why? Because atoms have definite and measurable masses....

Explanation:

We could report atomic masses with units of grams or kilograms. And thus an $^{1} H$ $""^1H$ atom has a mass of $1.67 \times 10^{- 24} \cdot k g$ $1.67xx10^-24 *kg$ or $1.67 \times 10^{- 21} \cdot g$ $1.67xx10^-21 *g$ . This is a bit inutile given that the we have to go thru the rigmarole of exponents, and even here they are a pain to write down and format....

Historically, while the mass of an hydrogen atom could not be experimentally measured … its mass could be inferred by reference to the mass of other atoms and molecules... and historically $1 \cdot amu$ $1*"amu"$ was $\frac{1}{12} \cdot th$ $1/12*"th"$ the mass of the $^{12} C$ $""^12C$ $isotope..$ $"isotope.."$

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Why is there an atomic mass unit?

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