Mass spectrometers are capable of separating and detecting individual ions even those that only differ by a single atomic mass unit. As a result moleucles containing different isotopes can be distinguished.
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The
number of isotopes The
abundance of the isotopes Boron-10 = 23 Boron-11 = 100 Working
out the relative atomic mass |
Note:
Based on the relative abundances of the 2 isotopes, one can predict that the
Ar of Boron should be closer to 11 than 10 ("weighted"
average), instead of a simple average of 10 and 11 to obtain 10.5.