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Binding energy is typically used to talk about the amount of energy needed to separate bound particles. This means that it represents the energy lost when particles enter a bound state.
So, why does this article use the term "binding energy" to talk about the energy/mass content of a proton?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton#Quarks_and_the_mass_of_the_proton
So, why does this article use the term "binding energy" to talk about the energy/mass content of a proton?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton#Quarks_and_the_mass_of_the_proton
While gluons are inherently massless, they possesses energy—to be more specific, quantum chromodynamics binding energy (QCBE)—and it is this that contributes so greatly to the overall mass of the proton (see mass in special relativity). A proton has a mass of approximately 938 MeV/c2, of which the rest mass of its three valence quarks contributes only about 11 MeV/c2; much of the remainder can be attributed to the gluons' QCBE.