The binding energy per nucleon () is maximum for which of the following atomic nuclei, indicating the highest nuclear stability?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. Iron
- Step 1: The nuclear binding energy per nucleon curve rises sharply from light nuclei, reaches a broad plateau, and then slowly declines for heavy nuclei due to Coulomb repulsion.
- Step 2: The maximum of the curve occurs near mass number .
- Step 3: has a binding energy per nucleon of approximately , making it the most tightly bound, thermodynamically stable nucleus.
Answer
Iron ().
Why not the others: Helium has ; Uranium has (susceptible to fission); Carbon has .
Practise more Modern physics and semiconductors.
Free questions with an explanation for every one, and full timed JEE Main mock tests.
More Modern physics and semiconductors questions
- The work function of a photosensitive metal is . What is the threshold wavelength above which photoelec…
- What is the de Broglie wavelength of an electron accelerated from rest through an electrostatic potential difference of…
- According to Bohr's model of the hydrogen atom, what is the radius of the second orbit (), given that the radius of the ground state…
- What is the energy required to excite an electron in a hydrogen atom from its ground state () to its first excited state ()?
- The spectral lines of the Lyman series of atomic hydrogen lie in which region of the electromagnetic spectrum?
- A radioactive sample has a half-life of . If the initial activity of the sample is , what w…