CAIE A-Level Physics A2 23.1.3 The Terms Mass Defect and Binding Energy Questions

Practise calculating nuclear binding energy from mass defect using a complete AS Paper 2 worked question, then relate the mass difference to the energy released or absorbed in the nucleus.

Exam points

calculate nuclear binding energy from mass defect

[Maximum number: 3]

Data for a nucleus and some particles are given in Table 9.1.

Table 9.1

Calculate the binding energy per nucleon, in MeV , of lanthanum-139 $\left({ }_{57}^{139} \mathrm{La}\right)$ .
binding energy per nucleon = MeV

$\begin{aligned} \Delta m=(82 \times 1.00863 u)+(57 \times 1.00728 u)-138.955 u \Delta m=(-) 1.16762(u) \end{aligned}$
energy $=1.16762 \times 934$
energy per nucleon $=(1.16762 \times 934) / 139$

=7.85 MeV

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CAIE A-Level Physics A2 23.1.3 The Terms Mass Defect and Binding Energy Questions question 1