Mass resolution ($R=x/\Delta x$)

Mass resolving power compares a peak coordinate $x$ with a stated width or separation criterion $\Delta x$. With $\Delta x$ taken as full width at half maximum, a Gaussian function of standard deviation $\sigma$ hasAt the neon-20 coordinate in the synthetic mass spectrum, $\sigma =0.04$ gives $\Delta x\approx 0.0942$ and $R\approx 212$, while $\sigma =0.70$ gives $\Delta x\approx 1.648$ and $R\approx 12.1$. The width criterion and relative peak areas both matter when judging whether a small neighboring isotope can be distinguished. Mass resolution also differs from the accuracy of a calibrated peak position.