Which one of the following statements is not correct?
[amp_mcq option1=”Atoms of different elements may have same mass numbers” option2=”Atoms of an element may have different mass numbers” option3=”All the atoms of an element have same number of protons” option4=”All the atoms of an element will always have same number of neutrons” correct=”option4″]
This question was previously asked in
UPSC CDS-1 – 2016
The statement that is not correct is “All the atoms of an element will always have same number of neutrons”.
Atoms of the same element are defined by having the same number of protons (atomic number). However, atoms of the same element can have different numbers of neutrons, which results in different mass numbers. These variants are called isotopes. Therefore, not all atoms of an element have the same number of neutrons.