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An atom does not "blow up" if you split it, but it will give off a tremendous amount of energy (in proportion to what is actually happening). If an atom was to "split" as asked, we'd consider it to have undergone nuclear fission. In fission, the atom "breaks" approximately in half, and the two "pieces" (which are called fission fragments) will recoil from the site of the event. In that light, an atom might be said to have "blown up" like it had been hit with something. In nuclear fuel, fission fragments recoil into the matrix in which they are being held, and this is expressed as heat. The recoil of the fragments accounts for a lot of the energy of the fission event. Note that in the fission talked about in many science classes, an atom of fissionable material is "hit" by a neutron and this causes a fission. This isn't quite accurate. The atomic nucleus must capture the neutron, and nuclear instability will result. Then the fission occurs. The atom is not "smashed" or "broken" by the "impact" of a neutron.

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15y ago
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6mo ago

When an atom is split in half in a process called nuclear fission, a lot of energy is released in the form of heat and radiation. This energy is released because the total mass of the resulting fragments is less than the original atom, in accordance with Einstein's equation E=mc^2. The excess mass is converted into energy, causing an explosion.

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Q: Why does an atom blow up if you split it in half?
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