andrewcellini Posted December 5, 2015 Share Posted December 5, 2015 (edited) I saw AJB say that the mass of a free electron + free proton is larger than that of a hydrogen atom....why is that? the mass of hydrogen is lighter because of the binding energy which is negative. m = mp + me - E/c^2 m is mass of hydrogen (in ground state), mp mass of proton, me mass of electron and E/c^2 is the mass contribution due to the binding energy. the energy required to separate the electron is equal to the absolute value of the binding energy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binding_energy Edited December 5, 2015 by andrewcellini Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now