The only information we had was the molecular weight. You asked a good question, but other than by looking at the periodic table, I don't know of a simple experiment that will tell you what the atomic number (number of protons) is given the atomic weight.mk9898 said:Thanks for your expertise. Just to remove any doubt I have two questions: 1) how is the division from the mass/proton mass = atomic weight? That would just be a scalar. 2) How does one find the total amount of the protons of an element?
We computed the number of neutrons plus protons. (molecular weight). Since they both have very nearly the same mass, the only thing we knew is that the sum of the neutrons and protons was 83(1.67 E-27) kg. There was no info as to whether we had 40 protons or 41 or 42, etc. Usually the number of protons and neutrons in an atom are about equal, plus or minus one or two or so. ## \\ ## The quickest way to determine the number of protons is to identify the chemical properties of the material, so that you know what the molecule or atom is, and then simply look it up in the periodic table. Experiments with molecular dynamics determine the mass (molecular weight), but these experiments do not give any info on the number of protons.mk9898 said:Yea apologies I meant molecular weight. But molecular weight/proton weight = atomic weight? How can that be?