Many people get confused sometimes by fusion and fission as they are similar and related. So, they might often mistake one for the other and vice versa as they have similar sounds. In this article, I will explain to you what fusion is, what fission is, and also where they are used. Please drop a comment if you liked it or not.
You might have heard about fusion in your school. Just to make sure, we are not talking about the solid-turning-into-liquid-on-heating fusion. We are talking about physics fusion. Fusion means putting together the nuclei of two or more atoms to form another atom with a slightly heavier nucleus.
For example, in stars, as you might remember, hydrogen is combined with another hydrogen atom to create a brand new helium atom. Hydrogen fuses with other hydrogen atoms to form helium. This fusion also generates a lot of energy, and the sun emits it as sunlight and heat in sunrays. (thoughtco.com)
Fission, however, is a completely different concept. Again, we are not talking about the fission in biology. The physics fission here is also known as nuclear fission. Nuclear fission is the opposite of fusion, as it occurs when the nucleus of an atom is split into two separate parts.
This results in smaller nuclei of different elements, some neutrons, and also a very large amount of energy. Some countries have made use of this energy and have created atom bombs, which are very powerful. To give you a sense of how powerful fission is, one fission events typically release 200 million eV or 200 MeV. That is a lot of energy.
Sources used-
· BYJU’S
· Wikipedia
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