# Is there any way to know how an uranium atom will get split in a fission reaction?

I have learned that uranium atom can be split in two different ways in a fission reaction. In one case it produces two neutron while in the other it produces three. \begin{align} ^1n + {}^{235}\mathrm{U} & \longrightarrow {}^{94}\mathrm{Sr} + {}^{140}\mathrm{Xe} + 2 \, {}^1n \\ ^1n + {}^{235}\mathrm{U} & \longrightarrow {}^{92}\mathrm{Kr} + {}^{141}\mathrm{Ba} + 3 \,{}^1n \end{align} Is there any factors or parameters that determine the way in which uranium will get fissioned? Or this is just a totally random process?

• The decay of radioactive particles is completely random in nature. So random that it is used in Hardware Random Number Generators to give truly unpredictable results. – Sam Jul 2 '20 at 13:34
• There are many more than just those 2 - see physics.stackexchange.com/questions/205620/… for a plot of yields. As @EmilioPisanty notes, the distribution does change a bit depending on the neutron energy, particularly between thermal neutrons and 14MeV neutrons. – Jon Custer Jul 2 '20 at 13:52