A neutron with mass 1.67e-27 kg moving with speed 5.0 × 101 km/s makes a head-on collision with a boron nucleus, originally at rest, with mass 1.66e-26 kg.

Question

A) If the collision is completely inelastic, so the particles stick together, what is the final kinetic energy of the system, expressed as a fraction of the original kinetic energy? Express it as a decimal.

B) If the collision were perfectly elastic, what fraction of the original kinetic energy is transferred to the boron nucleus? Express it as a decimal.

Answer 1

a use conservation of momentum to find final velocity of the combined particle. Then, knowing final and initial velocities, tabulate the KE ratio

b. On this, you have to use conservation of energy and momentum, compute both final velocities.