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LITHOEN

Chemical element

Carbon

The element of carbonate minerals and of organic matter, and the pivot of exchange between rock, ocean and atmosphere.

Classification

atomic number
6
symbol
C
block
p

How this record is known

3
Settled consensus
Cited as the accepted position of the discipline.

3 of 3 claims on this page cite at least one registered source. Counts describe how each statement is known, not how likely it is to be true.

What Lithoen records

Each claim states how it is known and cites its evidence.

Established6 protons

Carbon has atomic number 6: its nucleus contains 6 protons, and that is what makes it carbon.

  • definition basis: Atomic number is definitional: an atom with a different proton count is a different element, whatever else it shares.

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights (IUPAC) 2024 Primary authority

Established12.0096–12.0116 u

The standard atomic weight of carbon is given as the interval [12.0096, 12.0116], because its isotopic composition varies measurably between normal materials.

  • definition basis: CIAAW Standard Atomic Weights 2024. An interval is not an uncertainty: it is the range the value genuinely takes across normal materials.
  • precision note: A standard atomic weight is a property of the element as found in normal materials, not the mass of any individual atom.

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights (IUPAC) 2024 Primary authority

In the knowledge graph

Record last updated 2026-09-06. Corrections follow the published corrections policy; superseded claims are retained, never silently edited.