Can you help me to solve this problem????

Question

The average mass of a carbon atom is 12.011. Assuming you could pick up one carbon atom, estimate the chance that you would randomly get one with a mass of 12.011. Support your answer.

This question is from Zumdahl chemistry textbook

Answer 1

I was about to look up the relative abundances until I realized how silly this question is.

You would never pick up one with a mass of 12.011 amu because that's an average of all the stable isotopes. None of the individual isotopes have a mass of 12.011 amu.