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Topic: Binding Energy  (Read 6376 times)

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Offline tamubsa

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Binding Energy
« on: May 06, 2014, 08:04:27 PM »
The mass of a proton is 1.00728 amu and that of a neutron is 1.00867 amu. What is the binding energy (in J) of a 60Co nucleus? (The mass of a cobalt-60 nucleus is 59.9338 amu.

The answer is 8.206x10^-11. When I do it, I get the mass defect to be .54887 (9.11x10^-28 kg). When I multiply that by the speed of light i get 2.73x10^-19 J. What am I missing here??

Offline sjb

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Re: Binding Energy
« Reply #1 on: May 07, 2014, 02:01:08 AM »
The mass of a proton is 1.00728 amu and that of a neutron is 1.00867 amu. What is the binding energy (in J) of a 60Co nucleus? (The mass of a cobalt-60 nucleus is 59.9338 amu.

The answer is 8.206x10^-11. When I do it, I get the mass defect to be .54887 (9.11x10^-28 kg). When I multiply that by the speed of light i get 2.73x10^-19 J. What am I missing here??

Units?

Offline mjc123

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Re: Binding Energy
« Reply #2 on: May 07, 2014, 06:13:12 AM »
What's Einstein's equation? The most famous equation in science?

Offline Big-Daddy

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Re: Binding Energy
« Reply #3 on: May 07, 2014, 06:19:42 PM »
The mass of a proton is 1.00728 amu and that of a neutron is 1.00867 amu. What is the binding energy (in J) of a 60Co nucleus? (The mass of a cobalt-60 nucleus is 59.9338 amu.

The answer is 8.206x10^-11. When I do it, I get the mass defect to be .54887 (9.11x10^-28 kg). When I multiply that by the speed of light i get 2.73x10^-19 J. What am I missing here??

Hint: E ≠ mc. What does E =?

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