{"id":205548,"date":"2025-03-25T05:22:29","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T05:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/?p=205548"},"modified":"2025-03-25T05:22:31","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T05:22:31","slug":"three-naturally-occurring-isotopes-of-carbon-exist-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/25\/three-naturally-occurring-isotopes-of-carbon-exist-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Three naturally occurring isotopes of carbon exist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Three naturally occurring isotopes of carbon exist: The atomic mass of carbon is 12.01 amu. Which of the three carbon isotopes is most abundant in nature?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A) carbon-12<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>B) carbon-13<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>C) carbon-14<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>D) all three occur with equal abundance<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-ast-global-color-6-color\"><strong>The correct answer and explanation is :<\/strong><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The correct answer is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A) carbon-12<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Explanation:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Carbon has three naturally occurring isotopes: <strong>carbon-12 (\u00b9\u00b2C), carbon-13 (\u00b9\u00b3C), and carbon-14 (\u00b9\u2074C)<\/strong>. The atomic mass of carbon, as given in the problem, is <strong>12.01 atomic mass units (amu)<\/strong>. This value is the <strong>weighted average<\/strong> of all naturally occurring isotopes of carbon based on their relative abundance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why Carbon-12 is the Most Abundant?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Proximity to Atomic Mass:<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The atomic mass of carbon is <strong>12.01 amu<\/strong>, which is very close to <strong>12 amu<\/strong>, the exact mass of carbon-12.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This suggests that carbon-12 is by far the most abundant isotope, as it has the greatest influence on the weighted average.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Relative Abundance of Carbon Isotopes:<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Carbon-12 makes up about <strong>98.93%<\/strong> of all carbon found in nature.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Carbon-13 is much less common, with a natural abundance of about <strong>1.07%<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Carbon-14 is <strong>extremely rare<\/strong> (less than <strong>0.0000000001%<\/strong>) and is primarily used in radiocarbon dating.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Stability:<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Carbon-12 and carbon-13 are both <strong>stable isotopes<\/strong>, meaning they do not undergo radioactive decay.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Carbon-14, however, is <strong>radioactive<\/strong> and decays over time with a half-life of about <strong>5,730 years<\/strong>. Its presence in nature is due to continuous production in the atmosphere via cosmic ray interactions with nitrogen.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the atomic mass of carbon is <strong>very close to 12<\/strong>, and carbon-12 has the highest percentage, we can confidently say that <strong>carbon-12 is the most abundant isotope of carbon in nature<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Image:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is an image representing the three isotopes of carbon:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-1341.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-205549\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three naturally occurring isotopes of carbon exist: The atomic mass of carbon is 12.01 amu. Which of the three carbon isotopes is most abundant in nature? A) carbon-12 B) carbon-13 C) carbon-14 D) all three occur with equal abundance The correct answer and explanation is : The correct answer is: A) carbon-12 Explanation: Carbon has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}