Question

It takes four hydrogen nuclei to create one helium nucleus in the proton-proton chain, which is the main energy source of the Sun. If a single hydrogen nucleus has a mass of 1.6726 x 10-27 kg and a single helium nucleus has a mass of 6.6447 x 10-27 kg, how much mass is converted into energy to create four helium nuclei? 06 mass converted into energy: How much energy is generated in creating four helium nuclei? energy generated:

Answer 1

Solution:

Mass of hydrogen nuclei $m_{H}=1.6726\times 10^{-27}Kg$

Mass of a helium nucleus $m_{He}=6.6447\times 10^{-27}Kg$ .

(a)

It is given that four hydrogen nuclei creates a single He nuclei. Thus the mass defect(difference in mass)is,

$\Delta m=4m_{H}-m_{He}=4\times 1.6726\times 10^{-27}-6.6447\times 10^{-27}=4.57\times 10^{-29}Kg$

(b) The energy released during the process us given by,

$E=\Delta mc^2=4.57\times 10^{-29}\times (3\times 10^8)^2=4.113\times 10^{-12}J$