The mass of a helium-4 nucleus ( ) is

PHYSICS · Multi-part · AP · Physics 2: Algebra-based · Modern Physics · Modern Physics

Problem

The mass of a helium-4 nucleus (

^4_2\text{He}

) is

4.002603\,\text{u}

. The rest masses of a proton and a neutron are

1.007276\,\text{u}

and

1.008665\,\text{u}

respectively. Answer the following questions. (Take

1\,\text{u}=931.5\,\text{MeV}\!/c^{2}

.) (i) Calculate the mass defect of the helium-4 nucleus in atomic mass units. (ii) Hence find its binding energy in MeV.