Concept of Nuclear Fission and Fusion
Nuclear Fission is a chemistry and physics based reaction that helps atom split apart. Nuclear Fission of heavy elements was discovered in 1938 by Lise Meitner, Otto Hahn, Fritz Strassmann, and Otto Robert Frisch (Harris 1). In this process the atom of an element splits up, leaving behind protons and neutrons from the broken up element. There is also another process that is confused with Fission, and this process is Nuclear Fusion. In Fusion protons and neutrons are combined to make new elements and endothermic energy is releases (Helmenstine 1). While in Nuclear Fission when the atom is broken up into small particles huge amount of exothermic energy is released. The atom is broken up by hitting it with another atom of a different element. This different element must hit the stationary atom really hard for its nucleus to split apart (Harris 1). After the process is complete, the amount of energy released is always greater than the starting element (Nave 1). The reason for this is since another atom was hitting the stationary element the energy is transferred to the awaiting atom when its hit.
The Fission and Fusion process have been even further broken down thanks to Einstein. In WWII Einstein came up with an equation to help build the bomb and assure allied victory. This was the equation of energy which in mathematical form looked like E=MC2 . The E stood for energy, the M stood for mass, and the C2 stood for velocity of light squared. The energy equation showed that elements lighter than iron Fusion would yield more energy (Nave 1). The reason is simple a element with a higher mass can absorb a slow moving neutron which can make it unstable and easy to break. For example during WWII Uranium was chosen for the bomb but not the naturally occurring Uranium but Uranium 235 a lesser weighing isotope.
The exact same process has been done publicly only twice in history. They happened in the country of Japan,...