Explain why nuclear fission and nuclear fusion release large amounts of energy

Because of the formula

Explanation:

In this problem we are describing two different processes:

In both cases, the total mass of the final products is smaller than the total mass of the initial nuclei.

According to Einsten's formula, this mass difference has been converted into energy, as follows:

where:

E is the energy released in the reaction

is the mass defect, the difference between the final total mass and the initial total mass

is the speed of light

From the formula, we see that the factor is a very large number, therefore even if the mass defect is very small, nuclear fusion and nuclear fission release huge amounts of energy.

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