Nuclear Binding Energy
Due to the strong nuclear forces: force is needed to pull them apart--> it takes work to take a stable nucleus apart
energy is released when we allow nucleons to combine to form a stable nucleus
average binding energy per nucleon: the total amount of energy required to completely disassemble a nucleus divided by the number of nucleons.
Total energy of the nucleon related with the total mass: E=mc2
- total energy contains the total nuclear binding energy also
- measuring the total mass of a given nucleus and comparing it with the mass of the free nucleons--> information to the binding energy
average binding energy per nucleon as a function of nucleon nr.