Please help me! Neutral atoms of oxygen with a mass of 15 are frequently used in brain imaging technology. Could the atom symbol below be used in this process? Why or why not?

No, because the atomic number shown in the symbol (Z = 15) is not the atomic number of oxygen (Z = 8)

Explanation:

When we have an atom, the number in the top left is the mass number A, is equal to the sum between the number of neutrons and protons in the atom.

In this case, between protons and neutrons, we have 32.

The number at the bottom left is the atomic number Z, which is equal to the number of protons in the atom.

Particularly, this number is different for every element. For example, for the oxygen we would have Z = 8, this means that the oxygen has 8 protons.

In the image, we can see Z = 15, then the atom has 15 protons, this means that it can not be oxygen (Z = 15 is for phosphorus, then this atom would be phosphorrs). Then the symbol can not be used, because that is not oxygen.