Define nuclear binding energy, mass defect, and nucleon.

Short Answer

Expert verified
Nuclear Binding Energy is the energy needed to disassemble a nucleus into its component protons and neutrons. Mass Defect is the difference between the mass of a nucleus and the sum of masses of its individual nucleons. A Nucleon is either a proton or a neutron, the particles that make up the atomic nucleus.

Step by step solution

01

Defining Nuclear Binding Energy

Nuclear Binding Energy refers to the energy that is needed to disassemble a nucleus of an atom into its component protons and neutrons. It can also be understood as the energy that is released when nucleons come together to form a nucleus, due to the interaction of strong nuclear forces.
02

Explaining Mass Defect

Mass defect, also known as the binding energy, is the difference between the mass of a nucleus and the sum of the masses of its individual nucleons. It is this defect that is converted into energy according to Einstein's mass-energy equivalence principle, expressed as \(E=mc^2\).
03

Understanding Nucleon

A nucleon is one of the particles that makes up the atomic nucleus. Each nucleus consists of one or more nucleons, and each nucleon is either a proton or a neutron.

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