Question

A carbon-12 atom has a mass defect of 0.09564 amu. What is its nuclear binding energy? Round to 3 significant figures. x 10 J per carbon-12 atom

Answer 1

Hi, consider the solution given below

A carbon-12 atom has a mass defect of 0.09564 amu. What is its nuclear binding energy? Round to 3 significant figures. x 10 J per carbon-12 atom

First use the formula;

1 amu =934 MeV

therefore 0.09564 will have

934 x 934

= 89.3 MeV

Answer 2

To calculate nuclear binding energy from mass defect first we need to convert mass amu into kg for this multiply mass by 1.66054e-27.

0.09564* 1.66054e-27= 1.58813942e-28 kg

Then using formula E=mc^2

Energy = 1.58813942e-28 * 2.9*10^8

Energy =4.6*10^-20 JOULES

Rounding off to three significant figures = 4.60 × 10^-20 joules