The sun produces energy via fusion One of the fusion reactio

The sun produces energy via fusion. One of the fusion reactions that occurs in the sun is

4 1/1H>4/2He+2 0/1e

How much energy in joules is released by the fusion of 2.01 g of hydrogen-1?

=

Solution

follow

The sun converts 1000 grams of Hydrogen into 993 grams of Helium. The difference in the masses is released as energy, according to the formula E=mc^2.

If you use kilograms, then energy is in Joules.
E=(.007)(3x10^8)^2
E=(.007)(9x10^16)
E=6.3x10^13
The energy released is about 63 trillion Joules.

Edit: No, I didn\'t confuse fission with fusion, and no I didn\'t misplace the decimal point. Zero point seven percent of the mass is converted to energy during fusion in the proton-proton reaction. As a decimal, that\'s .007 and you can easily check this for yourself by looking at a periodic table.

The atomic mass of Hydrogen is 1.00794 and it takes four of them to make a Helium atom, so we start out with 4x1.00794=4.03176, and we end up with one Helium atom whose atomic mass is only 4.002602, so the difference is .029158. As a fraction of the original number 4.03176 it\'s .00723 which I rounded off to .007 .

It\'s not 7 percent, it\'s .7 percent.