Ernest Rutherford (the first New Zealander to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry) demonstrated that nuclei were very small and dense by scattering helium-4 nuclei from gold-197 nuclei. The energy of the incoming helium nucleus was 8.00 × 10−13 J , and the masses of the helium and gold nuclei were 6.68 × 10−27 kg and 3.29 × 10−25 kg , respectively (note that their mass ratio is 4 to 197).
a. If a helium nucleus scatters to an angle of 120° during an elastic collision with a gold nucleus, calculate the helium nucleus’s final speed and the final velocity (magnitude and direction) of the gold nucleus. b. What is the final kinetic energy of the helium nucleus?
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