# Get Isotope Data and Electron Mass in Same Units - kg and Kilograms

I'm trying to find the nuclear mass of $^{238}\text{U}$. To do this, I subtract the electron mass from the atomic mass. I'd like to find the final answer in kilograms. I'd also like to use Mathematica's fancy built-in functions to do so.

The problem is that, when I do so, the units don't match.

U238Mass = Convert[IsotopeData["Uranium238", "AtomicMass"] AMU, Kilogram]
electronMass = UnitConvert[Quantity["ElectronMass"]]

(* Out:
3.95293*10^-25 Kilogram
Quantity[9.109383*10^-31, "Kilograms"]
*)

U238Mass - electronMass

(* Out: 3.95293*10^-25 Kilogram + Quantity[-9.109383*10^-31, "Kilograms"] *)


The atomic mass is in Kilograms, but the electron mass is in kg (for some reason it shows up in the copy-paste as "Kilograms".

Any ideas on how to get both of these matching up?

• Are you using some extra package? Convert is not currently a built-in function in Mathematica (v10.3). Perhaps you meant: UnitConvert[IsotopeData["Uranium238", "AtomicMass"], "Kilograms"]. From the physical standpoint, why would subtracting the mass of one electron give you the mass of the nucleus? A neutral uranium atom contains 92 electrons. Also, the mass of an electron is so small when compared to that of a baryon that even 92 of them only account for a fraction of a percentage of the mass of an U nucleus. – MarcoB Jan 29 '16 at 21:26
• Sorry, I forgot to mention. My top line is: << Units And yes, it should be 92 e- – Terry Price Jan 29 '16 at 21:28
• What version of Mathematica are you running? Newer versions have the Units functionality built-in. – MarcoB Jan 29 '16 at 21:30
• Version 9.0.1 I haven't been a mathematica user for long - can you comment on the distinction? There appears to have been some sort of revamp of the units system or something like this? – Terry Price Jan 29 '16 at 21:38
• Functionality from the Units package has been built-in to the main system since v.9 actually (see the documentation for Units), so you should be able to use the built-ins. See my answer below as well. – MarcoB Jan 29 '16 at 22:36

You should try the following after restarting Mathematica to make sure that you don't run into conflicts with the Units package you had loaded.

U238Mass = UnitConvert[IsotopeData["Uranium238", "AtomicMass"], "Kilograms"]
electronMass = UnitConvert[Quantity["ElectronMass"], "Kilograms"]

U238Mass - 92 electronMass

(* Out:
Quantity[3.952926*10^-25, "Kilograms"]
Quantity[9.109383*10^-31, "Kilograms"]
Quantity[3.952088*10^-25, "Kilograms"]
*)


Alternatively, you can let the system deal with some conversions, and only convert at the end to the unit you desire for your answer:

UnitConvert[
IsotopeData["Uranium238", "AtomicMass"] - 92 Quantity["ElectronMass"],
"Kilograms"
]
(* Out: Quantity[3.95209*10^-25, "Kilograms"] *)


You will notice that the contributions of the electrons to the mass of the atom is very very small.

• I did this, but it didn't like the input. I copied and pasted the line. imgur.com/mp7IaVu What's the difference between having the units in quotes and not in quotes? – Terry Price Feb 1 '16 at 21:08
• Okay, I get it, the arguement should have been UnitConvert[Quanity[IsotopeData[.... Not ust UnitCovert[Isotopdat[.... – Terry Price Feb 1 '16 at 21:17
• @TerryPrice Perhaps this may be a limitation of your current version. Here is what I get when I run the code I posted:results. Have you tried to restart the kernel, if you haven't already? – MarcoB Feb 1 '16 at 21:18
• @TerryPrice - you are right, in version 9 IsotopeData` does not return quantities. – Jason B. Oct 16 '18 at 13:55