Lesson Plan

Explain nuclear fission, the liquid drop model, and chain reactions

Explain nuclear fusion and use the binding-energy-per-nucleon curve to relate fission and fusion

Apply E = mc² to explain and calculate the energy released in nuclear reactions

Describe how fission and fusion are used in nuclear weapons and in generating nuclear power

22.4

"In simplest terms, nuclear fission is the splitting of an atomic bond... it may come as a surprise to learn that splitting a nucleus can release vast potential energy." "The minimum amount necessary for self-sustained fission of a given nuclide is called its critical mass... The self-sustained fission of nuclei is commonly referred to as a chain reaction." "Recall that, according to Einstein's theory, energy and mass are essentially the same thing. In the case of fission, the mass of the products is less than that of the reactants because the missing mass appears in the form of the energy released in the reaction." "For nuclei that are less massive than iron, the nuclear force is actually stronger than that of the Coulomb force... All low-mass nuclei to the left of iron release energy through fusion, while all high-mass particles to the right of iron produce energy through fission."