• Question: how much heat is made when you split an atom ?????

    Asked by clummy to Ben, Clare, Ezzy, Mario, Sam on 12 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Mario Campanelli

      Mario Campanelli answered on 12 Mar 2012:

      it depends on the mass of the nucleus of that atom, and on the mass of the final-state products. take the difference, multiply by the square of the speed of light and subtract the speed of the final-state products

    • Photo: Elizabeth Pearson

      Elizabeth Pearson answered on 12 Mar 2012:

      Depends what you’re splitting. Considering their size though, quite a lot.

    • Photo: Clare Burrage

      Clare Burrage answered on 18 Mar 2012:

      When a Uranium nucleus splits about 0.1 % of it’s mass gets turned into energy. This is a very tiny amount. But because the atoms are very tighly pack inside a lump of uranium a small lump can give off as much energy as millions of litres of petrol.

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