How does fission and fusion processes create energy?

Question

How does fission and fusion processes create energy?

Answer 1

I'm no expert but basically energy and matter are the same thing and the processes of nuclear fission and fusion release this energy. According to the formula e is equal to mc squared, energy and matter is interchangeable and the formula tells you how much energy is contained in a certain mass of matter. Obviously because the constant speed of light is quite large and that squared is even large, very little matter contains a lot of energy.

Answer 2

Fission process is the splitting of a heavy unstable nucleus into smaller nuclei where the binding energy of the original nucleus is released in the form of electromagnetic energies and kinetic energies of the fission products.

Fusion is the process where two nuclei are forced to combine to form a heavier nucleus. The mass of the formed nucleus is less than the sum of the individual masses of the two nuclei. This means that the fusion process converts the difference in the masses into energy which is in the form of electromagnetic energies and kinetic energy of the product nucleus.