nuclear reactions
To understand the differences between nuclear fission and fusion. Nuclear reactions, like chemical reactions, are accompanied by changes in energy. The energy changes in nuclear reactions, however, are enormous compared with those of even the most energetic chemical reactions. In fact, the energy changes in a typical nuclear reaction are so large that they result in a measurable change of mass. In this section, we describe the relationship between mass and energy in nuclear reactions and show how the seemingly small changes in mass that accompany nuclear reactions result in the release of enormous amounts of energy.