Question

The isotope Cobalt-60 has a nuclear mass of 59.933820 u
3. Calculate the Binding Energy per Nucleon of Cobalt-60 using the following information.
Mass of Proton: 1.007825 u
Mass of Neutron: 1.008665 u
1 u = 931.5 MeV


Please help! If you can show the answer and the work, with an explanation afterwards, that would be great although you don't have to I just want to be able to understand it - thanks!

Answer 1

Okay so the way to solve "Binding Energy Per Nucleon" is similar to regular binding energy!
Find your defect mass by doing
Total Mass=(27p*1.00725)+(33n*1.008665)
Total Mass=(27.211275)+(33.285945)
Total Mass=60.49722
Defect Mass=60.49722-59.93382
Defect Mass=.5644
Then almost the same way to find binding energy,
Binding Energy Per Nucleon=.5644*931.5/60
Binding Energy Per Nucleon=525.7386/60
Binding Energy Per Nucleon=8.76231 MeV

Hope this helped!