Mass number

The mass number (A), also called atomic mass number or nucleon number, is the number of protons and neutrons in an atomic nucleus. The mass number is unique for each isotope of an element and is written either after the element name or as a superscript to the left of an element's symbol. For example, carbon-12 (¹²C) has 6 protons and 6 neutrons. The full isotope symbol would also have the atomic number (Z) as a subscript to the left of the element symbol directly below the mass number: . Note that this is redundant, as there is a one-to-one mapping between atomic number and element symbol, so it is rarely used, except when we want to clarify the number of protons in a nucleus, e.g. in atomic reactions.

The difference between the mass number and the atomic number (A - Z) gives the number of neutrons in a given nucleus.