What is the difference between fission

Before Einstein, mass was considered a mere material property that described how much resistance the object opposes to movement.

For Einstein, however, relativistic mass — which now takes into account the fact that mass increases with speed — and energy are simply two different names for one and the same physical quantity. By the process through which fission splits uranium atoms, for instance, a huge amount of energy, along with neutrons, is released. This mass discrepancy might be tiny but once you multiply it by c 2 the speed of light squared , the equivalent energy can be huge. Of course, this conservation of energy holds true across all domains, both in relativistic and classical physics.

A common example is spontaneous oxidation or, more familiarly, combustion. It can only follow that the square of the speed of light only partly explains the huge difference in energy released between nuclear and chemical reactions.

They have component parts, namely protons and neutrons. In order to understand nuclear fission or fusion , it is necessary to examine the bonds between these components. First of all, there are the nuclear forces binding protons and neutrons together.

Then, there are further forces, for instance the electric force with which all the protons repel each other due to the fact they all carry the same electric charge. Associated with all of these forces are what is called binding energies — the energies you need to supply to pry apart an assemblage of protons and neutrons, or to overcome the electric repulsion between two protons. This explains, along with chain reactions, why nuclear bombs can be so devastating.

Nuclear fission is a process in nuclear physics in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei as fission products, and usually some by-product particles.

Join the ZME newsletter for amazing science news, features, and exclusive scoops. More than 40, subscribers can't be wrong. When a nucleus fissions either spontaneously very rare or following controlled neutron bombardment, it splits into several smaller fragments or fission products, which are about equal to half the original mass.

In the process, two or three neutrons are also emitted. The resting mass difference, about 0. The energy released by a nuclear fission reaction can be tremendous. For instance, one kilogram of uranium can release as much energy as combusting 4 billion kilograms of coal. Inside the sun, fusion reactions take place at very high temperatures and enormous gravitational pressures. The foundation of nuclear energy is harnessing the power of atoms by splitting apart, a process called fission, or combining them, called fusion.

Both fission and fusion alter atoms to create energy, but what is the difference between the two? Fission takes place when a large, somewhatunstable isotope atoms with the same number of protons but different number of neutrons is bombarded by high-speed particles, usually neutrons. These neutrons are accelerated and then slammed into the unstable isotope, causing it to fission, or break into smaller particles.

During the process, a neutron is accelerated and strikes the target nucleus, which in the majority of nuclear power reactors today is Uranium This splits the target nucleus and breaks it down into two smaller isotopes the fission products , three high-speed neutrons, and a large amount of energy. This resulting energy is then used to heat water in nuclear reactors and ultimately produces electricity. But in an atomic bomb, the cascading chain reaction spirals out of control, with fission happening at an ever-increasing rate.

This releases a tremendous amount of power in a short span, generating the devastating blast of the bomb. Related: 6 years after Fukushima: Has Japan lost faith in nuclear power? Fusion, by contrast, has yet to be fully developed as a human power source. In nuclear fusion, two nuclei of a light element, such as hydrogen, must overcome their natural electromagnetic repulsion and merge into a single, heavier nucleus.

The resulting entity is slightly less massive than the original two nuclei, and just like with fission, this missing mass is converted into energy. But generating enough power to smash atoms together until they stick is not easy and generally requires the extreme environment of a star's belly to happen.

Engineers have long dreamed of making sustained fusion reactions here on Earth. The energy released by fission in these reactors heats water into steam. The steam is used to spin a turbine to produce carbon-free electricity. Click above to view our full fission vs fusion infographic.