Chlorine, consisting of two isotopes of mass numbers 35 and 37, has an atomic mass of 35.5. The relative abundance of the isotope of mass number 37 is?

Chlorine, consisting of two isotopes of mass numbers 35 and 37, has an atomic mass of 35.5.
The relative abundance of the isotope of mass number 37 is?

Answer Details

Chlorine has two isotopes with mass numbers 35 and 37. The atomic mass of chlorine is 35.5. This means that the average mass of all chlorine atoms is 35.5 atomic mass units (amu). Since the atomic mass is a weighted average of the masses of all isotopes of chlorine, we can set up an equation to find the relative abundance of the isotope with mass number 37: (35 x % abundance of 35) + (37 x % abundance of 37) = 35.5 We can simplify this equation by letting x be the % abundance of the isotope with mass number 37: (35 x (100 - x)) + (37 x x) = 35.5 x 100 Solving for x gives us x = 24.24, which is approximately 25%. Therefore, the relative abundance of the isotope with mass number 37 in chlorine is 25%. So, the correct answer is 25.