0 thoughts on “Higher Physics prelim”

  1. The thing about nuclear fission is that the daughter products vary. By absorbing a neutron, U-235 becomes unstable and splits. This splitting process does not always result in the same daughter products every time, although there is some statistical information available on the *most likely* fission fragments, e.g.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fission_product_yield

    At Higher level, you need to be able to analyse whatever data is given in the question. Normally, this will involve a calculation of the energy released as a result of the fission processs.

    To calculate the energy released, you follow a similar method to momentum questions, i.e. find the total mass BEFORE fission and the total mass AFTER fission.

    The difference in mass (mass Before – mass AFTER) is the value of m to be used in Einstein’s equation E=mcc (c squared) to determine the energy released.

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