4 ms·
>the average mass per nucleon in the resulting nucleus must be smaller than the average mass per nucleon in the reactants. That doesn't equal to the binding en
by Gauge_Irrahphe 6y ago
>the average mass per nucleon in the resulting nucleus must be smaller than the average mass per nucleon in the reactants.
That doesn't equal to the binding energy per nucleon though, as you add a nucleon.
- azernik 5y agoAnd then immediately on the addition of a hydrogen, the resulting nucleus is suddenly in a higher-energy (lower binding energy) state than some non-hydrogen splitting of it. And since most of the results of hydrogen hitting something are unstable, this happens almost immediately, leaving the total process looking more like fission (a proton hitting a nucleus, and producing two nuclei of smaller mass than the original). Which is, in fact, how uranium fission works, only with neutrons rather than protons.