Homework Help: physics

Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, November 8, 2007 at 12:54am.

An unstable nucleus of mass 17x10^-27 kg, initially at rest, disintegrates into 3 particles. One of the particles, of mass 5x10^-27kg, moves along the positive y axis with a speed of 6.0x10^6m/s. Another particle, of mass 8.4x10^-27kg, moves along the positive x axis with a speed of 4x10^6m/s. Determine the third particle's speed and direction of motion. For now you may assume that mass is also conserved in the disintegration process.

I started by multiplying the mass with the velocity. Then, I don't know.

physics - drwls, Thursday, November 8, 2007 at 2:49am
Remember that momentum is a VECTOR. The direction and magnitude are both important. You must resolve the MV product into x and y components to solve this problem.

Apply conservation of momentum in a plane with x and y axes. All motion is in that plane. You will end up with two equations in the two unknown components of velocity of the third particle, Vx and Vy. From those two components, compute the magnitude (speed) and the direction of motion (arctangent Vy/Vx).

Answer this Question

Related Questions

physics - An unstable atomic nucleus of mass 17.0 ¡Ñ 10¡V27 ...
Physics - In a location in outer space far from all other objects, a nucleus ...
Physics - Rutherford, Geiger, and Marsden (his students) fired a beam of alpha ...
Physics - The nucleus of 8Be, which consists of 4 protons and 4 neutrons, is ...
Physics 1 - Two small particles of mass 16 kg and 27 kg are a distance 1.4 m ...
Physics 1 - This is a repost....:Two small particles of mass 16 kg and 27 kg ...
physics - Two particles are in a uniform electric field whose value is +4000 N/C...
Physics - A neutron collides elastically with a helium nucleus (at rest ...
science - 1.which two particles are found in an atoms nucleus? 2. which two ...
Physics - (1) A bullet of mass 1.9×10−3 kg embeds itself in a ...

For Further Reading

First Name:
School Subject:
Answer: