The standard for the atomic mass unit (amu) is currently based on the Carbon-12 atom, which has an atomic number of 6 and a mass number of 12, equating to 12 unified atomic mass units. Historically, the standard was based on Oxygen-16 before being changed to Carbon-12 in 1961 to minimize disruption in existing measurements. While theoretically, any atom could serve as a standard, practical considerations such as availability, safety, cost, and ease of purification favor Carbon-12 as the optimal choice.
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Tonia said:Is there a reason you used four zeros?
Another atom has been used, before the standard was changed to carbon-12. This atom was oxygen, or more specifically, oxygen-16.Tonia said:The atom that is used as the standard for the atomic mass scale is the Carbon atom with an atomic number of 6 and a mass number of 12 and this carbon atom is equal to 12 unified atomic mass units. Could another atom be used as the standard, and if so, how would this be accomplished??