Nuclear Binding Energy WTF?

[UltimateHombre]

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Hey friends... so i was watching Chad's videos today and in the nuclear chem unit he talked about Nuclear Binding Energy. I didn't really understand what the point was and i never learned about it in gen chem.

Is this even on the DAT? If so, what should the take home be and what should i prepare for?

Thanks in advance for your help!!

 

[AlbinoPolarBear]

Yes you should know it. Nuclear binding energy is what keeps protons and neutrons together in the atomic nucleus. So we all know that positives attract negatives, but how come in the nucleus, all of the positive charges stick together?

Well, nuclear binding energy is the energy required to keep all the protons together.

I'm gonna give a simplified example. I didn't use the real values, but theoretical ones to show my point.

A proton has an atomic mass of 1.
A neutron has an atomic mass of 1.

In a hydrogen atom, the nucleus is 1 amu.
In a helium atom, the nucleus would expected to be 4, but it's not. It's like 3.999 amu.

So 0.001 of the mass is converted to energy which binds the protons and neutrons together.

How much energy is it?

E = mc^2

 

[xtra333]

yes, you need to know it. and it is in the destroyer questions.

 

[UltimateHombre]

Thanks for your your comments.

APB - I understand the concept of what it is, but without a calculator how are you supposed actually come up with amount of Energy in the gen chem section?

xtra - are the questions more theoretical or are they calculations?

 

[AlbinoPolarBear]

Well for my DAT, they didn't ask for many calculation questions in the gen chem section, those were saved for the QR. It was mostly setting up the equations.

You should get the DAT Destroyer, and do the gen chem questions on there. There are tons of calculations questions in those, and if you can do them all, you'll be in great shape for the exam.

 

[xtra333]

the questions in destroyer for DAT more concepts based. i.e. which of the following statements are false? and you select one that is false.