Why Carbon 12 is Taken as Standard
The carbon-based standard represented a nice compromise. The answer is an accident of history. Global Monitoring Laboratory Carbon Cycle Greenhouse Gases Click here to get an answer to your question Why carbon-12 is taken as standard. . There are several actual reasons why Carbon-12 is taken as the standard of atomic mass measurement. By chance defining the atomic mass as 116th of the mass of a mole of oxygen comprising a natural mix of 16 O 17 O and 18 O is very close to a standard defining the atomic mass as 112 the mass of a. Carbon-12 12 C is the most abundant of the two stable isotopes of carbon carbon-13 being the other amounting to 9893 of element carbon on Earth. This is due to two factors. The carbon-based standard represented a nice compromise. Initially the easiest measurement available was to determine the relative molecular masses of substances which are gases at room temperature. Carbon is on