The atomic mass is the mass of the naturally occurring mixture of isotopes of an element.

See also Mass Number, Atomic Mass Unit and Isotope.

(AMU) is equal to the mass of one-twelfth of a carbon-12 atom (6 protons + 6 neutrons (+ 6 electrons)), a 'very' little less than 1.66 x 10^-24 gram.

See also Mass Number and Atomic Mass.

The mass number is the total number of protons and neutrons (also total nucleon) in the nucleus.

See also Atomic Mass Unit, Atomic Mass.

(K-capture) An unstable atom with too many protons in the nucleus, and not enough energy to emit a positron, reaches a stable state in the way, that one proton captured an electron from the atom's inner shell (K-shell) and change to a neutron. A neutrino is emitted from the atoms nucleus by this process. The atomic mass of the atom is unchanged, but the decreased number of protons transformed the atom to a different element.

[Beta Plus Decay] If an atom is unstable because there are too many protons in the nucleus, a proton is converted into a neutron and a positron is emitted. The atomic mass of the atom stays unchanged, but the number of protons increases by one, the number of neutrons decreases by one, which transforms the atom to a different element.

See also Beta Decay.