Physics GCSE
isotopes
What isotopes means in Physics GCSE, as defined for AQA, OCR.
Definitions of isotopes
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Reference: OCR
Variants of an element with different neutron counts, while atoms of one element always share the same proton number.
Atoms of one element with the same proton number but different numbers of neutrons and so different masses.
Atoms of the same element with the same number of protons but varying numbers of neutrons.
Atoms of the same element that have different numbers of neutrons.
Topics that use isotopes
- Mass number, atomic number and isotopes (AQA GCSE)
- The development of the model of the atom (common content with chemistry) (AQA GCSE)
- Radioactive emissions (OCR GCSE)
Related terms
- neutral atoms
- Absorbing materials
- agreement with observations
- Alpha emission
- alpha particle scattering
- atomic number
- Beta emission
- changing and replacing models
Using isotopes in the exam
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