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The atomic mass is the mass of an atom. Although the SI unit of mass is the kilogram , atomic mass is often expressed in the non-SI unit atomic mass unit or unified mass or dalton , where 1 amu or 1 u or 1 Da is defined as 1⁄12 of the mass of a single carbon-12 atom, at rest. The protons and neutrons of the nucleus account for nearly all of the total mass of atoms, with the electrons and nuclear binding energy making minor contributions. Thus, the numeric value of the atomic mass when expressed in daltons has nearly the same value as the mass number. Conversion between mass in kilograms and mass in daltons can be done using the atomic mass constant m u = m 12 = 1 D a {\displaystyle m_{\rm {u}}={{m} \over {12}}=1\ {\rm {Da}}} .
The formula used for conversion is:
where M u {\displaystyle M_{\rm {u}}} is the molar mass constant, N A {\displaystyle N_{\rm {A}}} is the Avogadro constant, and M {\displaystyle M} is the experimentally determined molar mass of carbon-12.
The relative isotopic mass can be obtained by dividing the atomic mass ma of an isotope by the atomic mass constant mu yielding a dimensionless value. Thus, the atomic mass of a carbon-12 atom is 12 Da by definition, but the relative isotopic mass of a carbon-12 atom is simply 12. The sum of relative isotopic masses of all atoms in a molecule is the relative molecular mass.