 ASSIGNMENT

SUBJECT: APPLIED THERMODYNAMICS

NUCLEAR FISSION REACTION:
Nuclear fission is a nuclear reaction in which one nucleus of an atom splits
up into two or more smaller nuclei.

 It is a radioactive or decay process.

Example:
When a neutron hits the uranium (U-235) nucleus the uranium nucleus splits up into barium
Ba-141 and krypton-92 and produces 3 neutrons.

Explanation:
When a neutron hits U-235(235.04 grams), uranium absorbs the neutron and becomes U-
236. Now U-236 wants to split it up. U-236 splits up into two nuclei and that was barium-141(138.90)
and krypton-92(93.93 grams) and it produces three neutrons with mass of 2.0174 grams.

Calulation:
Total mass of reactants: 235.04 g

Total mass of obtained products: (138.90+93.93+2.0174)grams=234.84grams

So there is a difference between the actual value and obtained value and that’s difference is 0.1834 g.

According to Einstein equation, E=mc^2 , “ the loss of energy can be converted into mass”

Conclusion:
Energy is lost during the process which can be obtained by multiplying the difference with
speed of light.(c=3x10^8 m/s)

i.e., energy= 0.1834x(3x10^8)^2

energy=1.686x10^16 joules.

Prepared By
SHARJEEL MUNAWAR