RADIOACTIVITY.EU.COM

icon THE PHENOMENON

THE PHENOMENON

icon IN DAILY LIFE

IN DAILY LIFE

icon QUESTION OF DOSES

QUESTION OF DOSES

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AT THE DOCTOR’S

icon At the laboratory

At the laboratory

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At the museum

icon NUCLEAR ENERGY

NUCLEAR ENERGY

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RADIOACTIVE WASTE

A general public knowledge base dedicated to radioactivity created and maintained by the french physics community

The binding energy of an assembly of particles is the energy required to separate the particles. It is calculated from the internal energies and masses, using the Einstein relationship E = mc², applied separately to the assembly and its constituents. The result in a mass defect : the assembly is lighter than its constituents. In the case of a nucleus, the mass defect is about 1%. Translating masses into energies by multiplying by the square of the speed of light (300 000 km/s, a huge number), this leads to binding energies of around 8 million electronvolts per nucleon. In the fission of uranium nuclei, a fraction of this impressive hidden energy is released.

Similar definition(s) :

E = mc² : mass or internal energy

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