Final answer:
The energy released in the reaction of molybdenum-98 absorbing a neutron to become molybdenum-99 can be calculated by finding the mass defect and converting it to energy using Einstein's equation E=mc^2. The masses of Mo-98 and Mo-99 are necessary to perform the calculation.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student's question asks about the energy output of the nuclear reaction where molybdenum-98 (Mo-98) captures a neutron to become molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), resulting in the emission of a gamma photon (γ). To calculate the energy released, we require the atomic masses of the reactants and products, which are often found in an appendix of atomic masses in physics textbooks.
To find the energy released in the reaction, use the formula E = (mass of reactants - mass of products) × c2, where E is the energy released, c is the speed of light, and the masses are in atomic mass units (u).
Given the mass of 98Mo and 99Mo from the appendix, and considering the mass of a neutron is approximately 1.008665 u, we would calculate the mass defect (difference in mass before and after the reaction) and then use Einstein's equation to convert this mass defect into energy (MeV). Unfortunately, as we do not have the exact mass of 98Mo, we cannot perform this calculation here.
However, usually, this type of problem can be worked out by subtracting the mass of the products from the mass of the reactants, multiplying by 931.5 MeV/c2 (the conversion factor from atomic mass units to MeV), which gives the energy released in MeV.