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| == [[Orange Book]] Entry ==
| | #REDIRECT [[Mass number]] |
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| The sum of the total number of protons and neutrons in an atom, ion or molecule.
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| == [[Gold Book]] Entry ==
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| Total number of heavy particles (protons and neutrons jointly called nucleons) in the atomic nucleus. Also called nucleon number. Symbol ''m'' in mass spectrometry.
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| == Proposed New Entry ==
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| Total number of nucleons (protons and neutrons) in an atom or molecule. Should be called nucleon number instead of mass number. Currently the symbol m is widely used in mass spectrometry. To avoid confusion between the nucleon number and mass, the symbol n should be used for the nucleon number.
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| The nucleon number n should not be used in mass spectra because:
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| # mass spectrometers measure mass/charge and not the number of nucleons nor the number of nucleons/charge
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| # the number of nucleons n is a natural number (whole number larger than zero) whereas mass spectrometers measure fractional masses.
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