- #1
bman!!
- 29
- 0
... if you consider something simple momentum conservation, like in the case of a bullet, if you consider the system of the gun and the bullet, the momentum is zero before and after the shot is fired.
same for collisions etc...
however when you consider something like a deflection in rutherford scattering, the particle is deflected by the coulomb repulsion and follows a currved path and so has angular momentum during the deflection, however before and after the defelction, the particle is moving in a straight line, so how does the conservation of angular momentum apply in this case, when clearly the incident alpha particle, moving in a straight line, initially has no angular momentum...
same for collisions etc...
however when you consider something like a deflection in rutherford scattering, the particle is deflected by the coulomb repulsion and follows a currved path and so has angular momentum during the deflection, however before and after the defelction, the particle is moving in a straight line, so how does the conservation of angular momentum apply in this case, when clearly the incident alpha particle, moving in a straight line, initially has no angular momentum...