Consider a neutron of mass m moving with speed vL and making an elastic head-on collision with a nucleus of mass M that is at rest in the laboratory frame of reference.

(a) Show that the speed of the center of mass in the lab frame is V = mvL/(m + M).

(b) What is the speed of the nucleus in the center-of-mass frame before the collision? After the collision?

(c) What is the speed of the nucleus in the lab frame after the collision?

(d) Show that the energy of the nucleus after the collision in the lab frame is

(e) Show that the fraction of the energy lost by the neutron in this elastic collisionis

Transcribed Image Text:

4(m/M) -ΔΕ 4тМ 40-23 (т+ M)? (1+m/M)?