Q.
The mass of helium atom of mass number 4 is 4.0026 amu, while that of the neutron and proton are 1.0087 and 1.0078 respectively on the same scale. Hence, the nuclear binding energy per nucleon in the helium atom is nearly
He atom has 2p+2n
Hence, Δm=(2×1.0078+2×1.0087)−4.0026 =0.0304amu ∴ energy released =0.0304×931.5MeV =28.3MeV
Binding energy per nucleon =428.3=7MeV (approximately)