A hypothetical element consists of 3 isotopes
with the following masses and natural abundances.
Isotopic Natural
Mass Abundance
Number %
1 39 78.8
2 40 18.1
3 41 3.1
what is the atomic weight
To calculate the average atomic weight, each exact atomic weight is multiplied by its percent abundance (expressed as a decimal). Then, add the results together and round off to an appropriate number of significant figures
39 x .788 = 30.732 40 x .181 = 5.43 41 x .031 =+ 1.24 ---------- 39 since there are only 2 significant figures given for each mass