Atomic mass

The atomic mass (m<sub>a</sub>) is the mass of an atom at rest, most often expressed in unified atomic mass units.^[1] The atomic mass is sometimes incorrectly used as a synonym of relative atomic mass, average atomic mass and atomic weight; however, these differ subtly from the atomic mass. The atomic mass is defined as the mass of an atom, which can only be one isotope at a time and is not an abundance-weighted average. The actual numerical difference is usually very small such that it does not affect most bulk calculations but such an error can be critical when considering individual atoms.