I'm in high school, and I'm taking Chemistry this year, and I really don't get fusion and fission. Can someone help me out with these?
Which one is used to produce radioisotopes for science and medicine? Which one produces the greatest amount of energy per unit mass? Which one uses nuclear fuel, and which one uses lightweight nuclear fuel?
Thanks!
2007-03-15 04:51:27 · 9 answers · asked by JaNaLiEn 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
Simply put, _fusion_ adds things together to make a more complicated atom,
and
_fission_ splits things apart to make a simpler atom.
Both release energy when the action occurs.
Fusion releases the greater amount of energy during occurance.
2007-03-15 04:55:43 · answer #1 · answered by credo quia est absurdum 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's easy. Fusion is when you FUSE light elements together to make heavier elements. It is the more energy efficient process, and produces very little radioactive waste. Unfortunately, we haven't yet been able to build functioning fusion power stations. The only use we have for nuclear fusion so far, is in hydrogen bombs.
The commercial nuclear industry relies entirely on nuclear fission. This process involves splitting heavy atoms up into lighter atoms. This process is only about 1/5 as efficient as fusion, in terms of energy produced per unit mass, but is a lot easier to accomplish. All radioisotopes currently are either dug out of the ground or made in fission reactors.
2007-03-15 05:00:53 · answer #2 · answered by Ian I 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Fusion hasn't been perfected yet. Fission produces radioisotopes for medicine and others. Fusion is more explosive( more energy/ mass). Fission uses heavy elements(uranium), fusion could use hydrogen ( light weight).Fusion=get together, Fission= split up. In real life we see more of the second one, and so on.
2007-03-15 05:08:58 · answer #3 · answered by flyoverall 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Fission takes heavy atoms like uranium or plutonium and breaks then into smaller biproducts. Some mass is lost in the process and energy is given off.
Fusion takes light atoms (like hydrogen) combines them to make heavier atoms like helium. That's how the sun works. Again some matter is lost and energy is released.
They both release the same amount of energy for the mass lost according to the old mc^2 formula.
2007-03-15 04:55:47 · answer #4 · answered by Gene 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Fission is the process of splitting atoms. It's a messy proccess that makes a great deal of byproducts and spent radioactive waste. It uses heavy radioactive metals
Fusion is a cleaner albeit more difficult process of fusing two Hydrogen atoms into a Helium atom. No one has been able to make this process work efficiently enough to use in industry today.
From these above descriptions you have the answer to all your questions.
2007-03-15 05:00:09 · answer #5 · answered by spacebuff2001 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Colloquially, the fact is nice on condition that the universal public has equated fission bombs with the prefix, atomic. The atom bomb, so known as is the tip results of fission of atoms, the nuclear bomb, thermonuclear bomb, is the tip results of fusion.
2016-12-18 14:19:46 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
fusion means joining of atoms.fission means where atoms get seperated and multiply very fast generating huge heat.an explosion of atom bomb is nuclear fission
2007-03-15 04:57:04 · answer #7 · answered by ajay s 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
dont be confuser its very easy...
fusion-the act of process of combining the nuclei of atom to form a heavier nucleus
fission-the act of process of splitting the nucleus.whn large amount of energy is released.........
2007-03-15 04:57:25 · answer #8 · answered by hitanshu kaushal 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
fisson== adding.. and fusion= splittin...
2007-03-15 05:53:14 · answer #9 · answered by uv 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋