Atomic mass
The atomic mass ("m") is the mass of an atom. Its unit is the unified atomic mass units ("abbr." u) where 1 unified atomic mass unit is defined as of the mass of a single carbon-12 atom, at rest. For atoms, the protons and neutrons of the nucleus account for nearly all of the total mass, and the atomic mass measured in u has nearly the same value as the mass number.
Mass–energy equivalence
Once the nucleus was discovered, experimenters realized that the very high binding energies of the atomic nuclei should allow calculation of their binding energies, simply from mass differences. But it was not until the discovery of the neutron in 1932, and the measurement of the neutron mass, that this calculation could actually be performed (see nuclear binding energy for example calculation). A little while later, the Cockcroft–Walton accelerator produced the first transmutation reaction (), verifying Einstein's formula to an accuracy of ±0.5%.
In 2005, Rainville et al. published a direct test of the energy-equivalence of mass lost in the binding energy of a neutron to atoms of particular isotopes of silicon and sulfur, by comparing the mass lost to the energy of the emitted gamma ray associated with the neutron capture. The binding mass-loss agreed with the gamma ray energy to a precision of ±0.00004%, the most accurate test of to date.