alleryThe minimum mass of fissile material needed to sustain a chain reaction is known as the
Amass defect
Bcritical mass
Catomic mass
Dmolar mass
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: B. critical mass
1. To sustain a chain reaction, neutron production must exceed neutron loss.
2. This happens only above a certain minimum mass of fissile material.
3. That minimum is called the critical mass.
4. Mass defect is the mass lost as energy, a different idea.
_Source: Samacheer Kalvi (TN SCERT) Class 10 Science, Unit 6 Nuclear Physics "Nuclear Physics", p.86_
Keep practising Nuclei
Browse all Nuclei questions for AP Intermediate 2nd Year, or explore more Physics topics.
Related questions
When fusion is achieved by raising the temperature enough to overcome Coulomb repulsion, iA nucleus influencing only the nucleons close to it shows which property of the nuclear foWhy must the nuclear binding force be much stronger than the Coulomb force?Mean life is the time at which the number of nuclei falls to what fraction of its initial Half-life is the time taken for the decay of what fraction of the initial nuclei?In alpha decay, which nucleus is emitted?How many types of radioactive decay are said to occur in nature?In the flat middle region of the curve, the binding energy per nucleon is nearly: