13.17 Why does nuclear fusion and fission occur?

[@sadmarcharicheese2041]

Umm when we are finding out how many possible fusion reactions there are in Hydrogen....why do we divide by 2?

[@MrNagaPhysics]

because you will need two hydrogen nucleus to do one fusion reaction.
For fission you only need 1 uranium nucleus.

[@sadmarcharicheese2041]

for answer c..... dont u mean larger nucleai split into smaller ones with SMALLER binding energy

[@MrNagaPhysics]

You're right. Each nucleus formed from fission has a smaller binding energy(because they're smaller) but higher binding energy per nucleon so the the total binding energy of the two smaller nuclie is greater than that of the large nucleus. This difference is the released energy.

[@sadmarcharicheese2041]

@@MrNagaPhysics oh ok thank you