DISCOVERY · I05
What changes a mass-to-charge signal?
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This teaching model uses nominal mass numbers. A single peak does not uniquely identify a molecule.
IN CONTEXT
What can change while hydrogen stays hydrogen?
EXPLORE THE MODEL
The arrangement explains the signal path. The investigation below supplies the teaching output; this schematic is not a ray trace, micrograph, or instrument calibration.
| Nominal m/z | Synthetic signal (arbitrary units) |
|---|---|
| 0.000 | 0.00000 |
| 1.000 | 0.00000 |
| 2.000 | 0.00000 |
| 3.000 | 0.00000 |
| 4.000 | 0.00000 |
| 5.000 | 0.00000 |
| 6.000 | 0.00000 |
| 7.000 | 0.00000 |
| 8.000 | 0.00000 |
| 9.000 | 0.00000 |
| 10.000 | 0.00000 |
| 11.000 | 0.00000 |
| 12.000 | 0.00000 |
| 13.000 | 0.00000 |
| 14.000 | 0.00000 |
| 15.000 | 0.00000 |
| 16.000 | 0.00000 |
| 17.000 | 0.00000 |
| 18.000 | 0.00000 |
| 19.000 | 0.00000 |
| 20.000 | 3.13146 |
| 21.000 | 0.00000 |
| 22.000 | 0.00000 |
| 23.000 | 0.00000 |
| 24.000 | 0.00000 |
| 25.000 | 0.00000 |
| 26.000 | 0.00000 |
| 27.000 | 0.00000 |
| 28.000 | 0.00000 |
| 29.000 | 0.00000 |
| 30.000 | 0.00000 |
Synthetic single-ion signal using nominal mass number divided by charge number. Peak height is arbitrary; exact isotope masses and isotope abundance are not modeled.
m/z ≈ A / zAt the same isotope mass, doubling the charge number halves m/z. The signal alone does not uniquely identify a substance.