College Physics 10th Edition by Raymond Serway,Chris Vuille

Exercise 18

When a star has exhausted its hydrogen fuel, it may fuse other nuclear fuels. At temperatures above 1.0 × 10 8 K, helium fusion can occur. Write the equations for the following processes. (a) Two alpha particles fuse to produce a nucleus A and a gamma ray. What is nucleus A (b) Nucleus A absorbs an alpha particle to produce a nucleus B and a gamma ray. What is nucleus B (c) Find the total energy released in the reactions given in parts (a) and (b). Note: The mass of = 8.005 305 u.