In the above two reaction I, the pOlltlv,ly ohar.

eeI cr patte I hay, to In th CUI 1:1

be accelerated to high kinetic eneralel in order to OVlrcome electrical

repulsion and bombard the positively charged aluminum or nitrogen
11m .l(Mcl-l7m,) + m,l - (Ms -16m.,)
nuclei. Thus the reactants in either case possess initial kinetic energy = MCI-Ms
equal to the kinetic energy of the a particle plus the kinetic energy of the An exception to the rule, however, is in reactions involving positrons.
nucleus, though the latter is usually negligible. (This process is analo- This is shown by the reaction
gous to raising a fuel-air mixture to its ignition temperature by adding C"--+ 8" + eO (\-10)
activation energy before combustion can take place in a chemical reaction.) +1
In this case, 6 5
When the reactions are completed, the energy released will be equal to the
initial energy of the .reactants plus the energy corresponding to the lost sm = [(Ms - 5me) + mel - (Me - 6me)
mass (or minus the energy corresponding to the gained mass). = Ms - Me + Lm,
This energy shows up in the form of kinetic energy of the resultant Therefore, two electron masses are added if the positron appears on
particles, in the form of y energy, and as excitation energy of a product the right-hand side of the equation and are subtracted if it appears on
nucleus, if any become so excited. The total kinetic energy of the the left-hand side of the equation .
. products is divided among the nuclei and particles in such a manner that
the lighter particles have higher kinetic energies than the heavier ones.
1-6. ENERGY FROM NUCLEAR REACTIONS
The isotope masses, obtained from Appendix B and used above,
included the masses of the orbital electrons. The nuclear masses can The energy corresponding to the change in mass in a nuclear reaction
be computed by subtracting the sum of the masses of Z orbital electrons. can be calculated from Einstein's law, Eq. I-I here repeated
This for example, makes the mass of the A\27 nucleus equal to I
,1 = - ,1mc2 [I-ll
26.98153 - 13 X 0.0005486 amu, and so on. Such corrections, however, gc
are unnecessary in most cases since the same number or electrons show where g c is a conversion factor* that has the following values
up on both sides of the equation. For example, in the reaction given by
Eq. 1-6, the energy produced corresponds to the change in masses of 1.0 kg m/N see"
the nuclei as given by 1.0 gmcm2/erg see!
sm = [(MSi -14me) + (MH - me)] - [(MAl - 13me) + (M )1
- 2me
32.2lbmft/lbfsec2
He

4.17 X \08 Ibmft/lbfhr2

where M denotes the isotope atomic masses and me the mass of one 0.965 X 10'8 amu crn-/Mev see-
electron. It can be seen that the number of electrons balance and that
Thus if b.m is in kilograms and c in meters per second, !ill will be in
Sm = (MSi+ MH) - (MAl + M ) He
joules. Since c = 3 X 108 m/sec, Eq, 1-1 can be written in the form
which is the relationship used to compute sm for the reaction given by !ill (J) = 9 x 1016 b.m (kg) 0-11a)
Eq. 1-6. The principle holds even if neutrons (whose mass, 1.008665
But since it is convenient to express the masses of nuclei in atomic mass
. amu, does not include any electrons) are involved in a reaction. In
units and since 1 amu equals 1.66 x 10-27 kg, Eq, l-11a may be written
general, then,
as
sm = ~Mproducts - ~Mreactants (1-8) !ill (1) = 1.49 X 10-10 b.m (amu) (l-Llb)
In nuclear science, it is common to use the electron volt (ev), or the
and the electron masses are neglected. This rule applies even though a million electron volt (Mev) as units of energy. Using the Mev, Eq. l-Llb
negative () particle may appear on either side of the equation. An becomes
example is the following reaction: ,1 (Mev) = 931 ,1m (amu) ( \-
12)
16S35--+ I7Cps + _Ieo (1-9) * The same as in force = I/gc x mass x acceleration.

"