Mission NC10 Binding Energy

Mission NC10 requires that students be able to compare the energy and the mass of a nucleus to the energy and mass of the nucleons of which it is composed. Students should be familiar with the meaning of mass defect, binding energy, and mass-energy equivalence.

• The student should be able to describe the changes in mass that occur as a nucleus is formed from its parts and relate this ∆m to changes in energy of the system and the surroundings.
• The student should be able to describe what binding energy is and use a binding energy curve to extract some information related to stability and the tendency of an isotope to undergo fission and fusion.

If you are not familiar with this topic, then you should first learn about the topic using our written Tutorial:

• Binding Energy