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Nuclei

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3 views

Nuclei

nu

Uploaded by

sureshtjis4
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Nuclei

NUCLEAR FORCE

Nuclear force is a strong attractive force that binds the protons and
neutrons together inside a tiny nucleus.

Properties of nuclear force :


1. Strongest interaction.
Nuclear force is the strongest interaction known in nature that
holds the nucleons together despite the strong electrostatic
repulsion between the protons.
2. Short-range force.
Unlike gravitational and electrostatic forces, nuclear force is a short-
range force. It operates only upto a very short distance of about
2-3 fm from a nucleon.
3. Variation with distance.
The graph of P.E. of a pair of nucleons
as a function of their separation r is
shown
The P.E. is minimum at a distance
R 0.8 fm.
0
4. Charge independent character.

It is seen from experiments that the attractive force between two neutrons
(nn-force) is nearly equal to that between two protons (pp-force) or between
a proton and a neutron (pn-force). Thus the nuclear force does not depend on
the charge of the particles.
In case of pp-nuclear force, there is a repulsive force between two protons,
but this is weak compared to the strong nuclear force.

5. Saturation effect.
Nuclear forces show saturation effect, i.e., a nucleon interacts only with its
neighbouring nucleon. This property is supported by the fact that the binding
energy per nucleon is same over a wide range of mass numbers
6. Spin dependent character.
The nuclear force between two nucleons having parallel spins is stronger
than that between two nucleons having antiparallel spins.

7. Exchange forces.
In 1935, a Japanese physicist H. Yukawa suggested that the nuclear
force between two nucleons arises from the constant exchange of
particles, called mesons, between them.

8. Non-central forces.
The nuclear force between two nucleons does not act along the line
joining their centres.
MASS DEFECT AND PACKING FRACTION

Einstein's mass-energy equivalence.


In his special theory of relativity, Einstein showed that

E = mc2
Mass defect
The difference between the rest mass of a nucleus and the sum of the
rest masses of its constituent nucleons is called its mass defect.

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