A nucleus with mass number 240 breaks into two fragments each of mass number 120, the binding energy per nucle

Question

A nucleus with mass number 240 breaks into two fragments each of mass number 120, the binding energy per nucleon of unfragmented nuclei is 7.6 MeV while that of fragments is 8.5 MeV. The total gain in the Binding Energy in the process is

Accepted Answer

Mass number of reactant = 240. BE per nucleon = 7.6 MeV. Mass number of products = 120. BE per nucleon of product = 8.5 MeV. Total gain in BE = (BE of products) - (BE of reactants) = [120 + 120] * 8.5 - [240] * 7.6 = (240) * 8.5 - 240 * 7.6 = 2040 - 1824 = 216 MeV.

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