Question

what is an isotope?

Answer 1

Isotopes are variants of atoms of a particular element. What varies is there number of neutrons. For example Carbon has 3 isotopes, that I know of. Although Carbon only has 6 protons, when referring to it's isotopes it is written as: Carbon-7, Carbon-8. This refers to the number of neutrons since the 6 protons is implied and unchanging. I hope that wasn't too confusing.

Answer 2

Let me try and simplify it, I'll still use Carbon as an example.
Carbon = 6 protons. This never changes, thus it's atomic number is always 6.
However, the number of neutrons DOES change, the result is an isotope.
SAME NUMBER OF PROTONS DIFFERENT NUMBER OF NEUTRONS. :)

Answer 3

the same element with same number of proton but different no.of neutrons...if the question ask.....answer like this 4 get the full mark..

Answer 4

An isotope refers to naturally occurring variations of an element. It refers to the different forms of the same element. They contain an equal number of protons but differ in the number of neutrons (neutral charges) they possess. Therefore, the different forms of the element (or isotopes) will behave identically in a chemical manner (because they are still equal in protons) but will have different masses (because of the variations in the number of neutrons!)

Examples of this are seen in the multiple isotopes Carbon has:
There is Carbon 12, Carbon 13, and Carbon 14.
All have identical chemical behaviors, however, they differ in the number of neutrons they contain, hence, their overall atomic masses differ from one another.

Hope I've helped!