How Do You Calculate Mass Conversion in Nuclear Reactions?

[Mspike6]

Hi forums ..

i got 2 questions, i got the main idea how to solve them but i still need some help.

1) Use the following fusion reaction to determine the amount of mass that is converted to energy. 2/1 H + 3/1 H  4/2 He + 1/0 n + 17.6 MeV

Solution .
mh2 = 2.014102
mh3= 3.016049
mHe =4.002603
mn= 1.008665

i know that m =mf - mi (this works for fission, am not sure if it works for fusion as well )

But am not sure how to deal with the 17.6 MeV


2)The mass of a helium-4 nucleus is 4.0026 u. The mass of an individual proton is 1.0073 u and 1.0087 u for a neutron. Determine the binding energy per nucleon in the helium nucleus in units of MeV per nucleon

Solution
E nucleon = $$\frac{E binding}{A}$$
A= Atomic mass number .
what i don't know is how to get the Ebinding here.


Thanks guys, and help/tip is really appreciated

 

[jbsteele]

.For the first question, you can use the equation E=mc^2 to calculate the amount of energy produced from the reaction. The mass is calculated using the mass of the individual particles minus the mass of the resulting particles. For the second question, you can calculate the binding energy using the equation E = Δm c^2 where Δm is the difference between the mass of the individual particles and the mass of the resulting nucleus.