Taken from http://www.sizes.com/units/atomic_mass_unit.htm
History of the atomic mass unit
- Atomic mass unit A unit of mass equal to 112 the mass of an atom of the most common isotope of carbon (carbon 12), which is assigned a mass of 12 and has a value of 1.660 X 10 -24 grams. A hydrogen atom has a mass of 1 atomic mass unit since its mass is 112 the mass of carbon 12.
- Given that the unified atomic mass unit is one twelfth the mass of one atom of carbon 12, meaning the mass of such an atom is 12u, it follows that there are NA atoms of carbon 12 in 0.012 kg of carbon 12. This can be expressed mathematically as NA(12u) = 0.012 kg/mol, or NAu = 0.001 kg/mol.
Stanislao Cannizzaro (1826–1910), the pioneer in this field, adopted the hydrogen atom as a standard of mass and set its atomic weight at 2. Others accepted the idea of using a specific atom as a standard of mass, but preferred a more massive standard in order to reduce experimental error.
As early as 1850, chemists used a unit of atomic weight based on saying the atomic weight of oxygen was 16. Oxygen was chosen because it forms chemical compounds with many other elements, simplifying determination of their atomic weights. Sixteen was chosen because it was the lowest whole number that could be assigned to oxygen and still have an atomic weight for hydrogen that was not less than 1.
The 0=16 scale was formalized when a committee appointed by the Deutsche Chemische Gesellschaft called for the formation of an international commission on atomic weights in March 1899. A commission of 57 members was formed. Since the commission carried on its business by correspondence, the size proved unwieldy, and the Gesellschaft suggested a smaller committee be elected. A 3-member International Committee of Atomic Weights was duly elected, and in 1903 issued its first report, using the 0=16 scale.5
Taking isotopes into account
The discovery of isotopes complicated the picture. In nature, pure oxygen is composed of a mixture of isotopes: some oxygen atoms are more massive than others.
Atomic Mass Units Table
The universal mass unit, abbreviated u (sometimes amu for atomic mass unit), is defined as one-twelfth of the mass of the 12 C atom which has been defined to be exactly 12 u. The absolute mass of a 12 C atom is obtained by dividing the value 12 by the Avogadro number ( N A = 6.022 137 × 10 23 ).
Continuation of Average Atomic Mass and definition of atomic mass unit. Atomic mass is the mass of one atom of carbon. For macroscopic bodies, masses are measured in kilograms or grams. For microscopic particles like atoms, ions or molecules, Dalton or unified atomic mass unit is used.
This was no problem for the chemists’ calculations as long as the relative abundance of the isotopes in their reagents remained constant, though it confirmed that oxygen’s atomic weight was the only one that in principle would be a whole number (hydrogen’s, for example, was 1.000 8).
Physicists, however, dealing with atoms and not reagents, required a unit that distinguished between isotopes. At least as early as 19276 physicists were using an atomic mass unit defined as equal to one-sixteenth of the mass of the oxygen-16 atom (the isotope of oxygen containing a total of 16 protons and neutrons).
In 1919, isotopes of oxygen with mass 17 and 18 were discovered.7 Thus the two amu’s clearly diverged: one based on one-sixteenth of the average mass of the oxygen atoms in the chemist’s laboratory, and the other based on one-sixteenth of the mass of an atom of a particular isotope of oxygen.
In 1956, Alfred Nier (at the bar in the Hotel Krasnapolski in Amsterdam) and independently A. Ölander8, both members of the Commission on Atomic Masses of the IUPAP, suggested to Josef Mattauch that the atomic weight scale be based on carbon-12. That would be okay with physicists, since carbon-12 was already used as a standard in mass spectroscopy. The chemists resisted making the amu one-sixteenth the mass of an oxygen-16 atom; it would change their atomic weights by about 275 parts per million. Making the amu one-twelfth the mass of a carbon-12 nucleus, however, would lead to only a 42 parts per million change, which seemed within reason.
Mattauch set to work enthusiastically proselytizing the physicists, while E. Wichers lobbied the chemists.9 In the years 1959–1961 the chemists and physicists resolved to use the isotope carbon-12 as the standard, setting its atomic mass at 12.
Learn about this topic in these articles:
calculation of atomic mass
Atomic Mass Unit Mev
- In atomic weight
Atomic weight is measured in atomic mass units (amu), also called daltons. See below for a list of chemical elements and their atomic weights.
Read More - In atom: Atomic mass and isotopes
…measured in terms of the atomic mass unit, which is defined to be 1/12 of the mass of an atom of carbon-12, or 1.660538921 × 10−24 gram. The mass of an atom consists of the mass of the nucleus plus that of the electrons, so the atomic mass unit is…
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