Atom
The actual mass of an atom at rest is often expressed using the unified atomic mass unit (u), also called dalton (Da). This unit is defined as a twelfth of the mass of a free neutral atom of carbon-12, which is approximately . Hydrogen-1 (the lightest isotope of hydrogen which is also the nuclide with the lowest mass) has an atomic weight of 1.007825 u. The value of this number is called the atomic mass. A given atom has an atomic mass approximately equal (within 1%) to its mass number times the atomic mass unit (for example the mass of a nitrogen-14 is roughly 14 u). However, this number will not be exactly an integer except in the case of carbon-12 (see below). The heaviest stable atom is lead-208, with a mass of .
Molecular mass
In the example above the atomic mass of carbon is given as 12.011, not 12. This is because naturally occurring carbon is a mixture of the isotopes C, C and C which have relative atomic masses of 12, 13 and 14 respectively. Moreover, the proportion of the isotopes varies between samples, so 12.011 is an average value. By contrast, there is less variation in naturally occurring hydrogen so the average atomic mass is known more precisely. The precision of the molecular mass is determined by precision of the least precise atomic mass value, in this case that of carbon. In high-resolution mass spectrometry the isotopomers CH and CH are observed as distinct molecules, with molecular masses of 16 and 17, respectively. The intensity of the mass-spectrometry peaks is proportional to the isotopic abundances in the molecular species. C H H can also be observed with molecular mass of 17.