(a) What is the atomic number of an element if one of its

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(a) Here, the goal of the problem is to find the atomic number of an element if one of its isotopes has 117 neutrons and a mass number of 195.

Isotopes are the atoms that have the same atomic number(the number of protons) but differ in the number of neutrons. Because of the different number of neutrons, atoms may exhibit different physical properties. We represent isotopes as:

        or

Where ‘A’ represents mass number

         ‘Z’ represents Atomic number

         ‘X’ represents the chemical element.

Atomic number indicates the number of protons and electrons.  

The difference between the number of protons and mass number determines the number of neutrons as the number of protons and neutrons make the mass number.