The fruit seller uses a watermelon as a standard reference, stating its mass as 12 units. He then compares the mass of each fruit he sells relative to one piece of the watermelon.
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The relative atomic masses of all elements are determined with respect to an atom of carbon-12.
One atomic mass unit is defined as exactly one-twelfth (1/12th) the mass of one atom of carbon-12.
The carbon-12 isotope was chosen as the standard reference for measuring atomic masses.
Scientists initially determined the atomic mass unit for oxygen by taking 1/16 of the mass of an atom of naturally occurring oxygen as the unit.