alexgmcm
Feb6-09, 01:17 PM
Can some kind person please explain why He-4 is so high and Li-6 is so low on the graph of binding energy per nucleon.
Copy of the graph here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Binding_energy_curve_-_common_isotopes.svg
It means that He-4 must be very stable right? Because binding energy is indicative of stability for reasons I can't quite recall at the moment.. but why is there such a spike as it goes up to He-4 and then down to Li-6 and Li-7 etc.
I remember in something about astrophysics it said there were like resonances in C-12 for example that made it more stable than one might expect so is that the case for He-4? But otherwise why is it so stable, or is Lithium just very unstable?
Argh, this stuff gets pretty confusing.. any help would be greatly appreciated.
Copy of the graph here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Binding_energy_curve_-_common_isotopes.svg
It means that He-4 must be very stable right? Because binding energy is indicative of stability for reasons I can't quite recall at the moment.. but why is there such a spike as it goes up to He-4 and then down to Li-6 and Li-7 etc.
I remember in something about astrophysics it said there were like resonances in C-12 for example that made it more stable than one might expect so is that the case for He-4? But otherwise why is it so stable, or is Lithium just very unstable?
Argh, this stuff gets pretty confusing.. any help would be greatly appreciated.