Close. Avogadro's number is the number of atoms of Carbon-12 requried to have a mass of exactly 12 grams. For other elements/isotopes, the number would be slightly different. There is energy stored in the atomic bonds in the nuculus, and this affects the mass of the atom according to E=mc^2. For example,a Helium-4 nuculus contains 2 protons and 2 neutrons, but it's mass is slightly lighter than the sum of the 4 particles because some energy is emitted when the particles are combined so the mass equivalence of this energy is lost. The reason oxygen will show up on your periodic table with an atomic weight of 15.999 is because it's a weighted average of all the isotopes of oxygen in the proportions they appear on Earth. If you take a sample of oxygen, it will have all the isotopes present in these relative quantities, so when you go to measure it, you'll be measuring across the weighted average. Jason -- http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! email listserv@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body