Why does splitting an atom create energy? And why is it so much energy?
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Stuff as we understand it , the chair you are sitting in for example or any physical object is made of energy at its most basic level.
Energy is squashed together and held in place by bonds and that is an atom.
If the bonds are somehow broken then like a balloon popping all that squashed up energy is released.
In a chain reaction like in an atomic bomb, when the first atoms are split and the energy is released , bits fly out and strike nearby atoms and split them. Those atoms release energy and split more nearby atoms and like a spreading fire , one match can start a fire that burns down a building .
TL;DR Some folks think ‘matter’ is large amounts of energy held in a kind of self sustaining containment field with bonds kind of like magnets but not magnets really.
The mass of the starting atom is more than the mass of the resulting atoms. The missing mass is released as energy. We know from Einstiens famous equation that
> energy = mass x c^2
c is already quite a large number (3×10^8) so c^2 is much larger, 9×10^16. Loosing a small amount of mass creates a large amount of energy.
Finally, I’ll point out that this works the other way round with small atoms, if you take 2 small atoms and manage to stick them together, you’ll also lose mass and release energy. The changeover point happens at iron.
Basically, for very advanced physical chemistry/physics reasons, every atom’s nucleus wants to be iron. Iron is like the bottom of a valley – going either way (adding or subtracting protons and neutrons) takes energy. So if an atom is smaller than iron, it wants to fuse to become iron. If an atom is larger than iron, it wants to split to become iron. Just like rolling a ball downhill, moving closer to iron releases energy.
Why so much energy? Well, as another commenter said – the strong nuclear force, the one that holds nuclei together – is veeeeery strong.
Second part: It’s not just one atom. Splitting one atom releases a lot of energy *for one atom*, but it’s still a relatively atom-sized amount of energy. A nuclear reactor has to split lots and lots and lots of atoms to get the energy out, just like a car burns lots and lots and lots of molecules of gasoline.
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