Momentum: Nucleus decays into 3

  • Thread starter Thread starter sweetpete28
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Momentum Nucleus
sweetpete28
Messages
80
Reaction score
0
Can someone please help with this one? I'm not sure what to do here. I broke momentum for particles one and two into components (found m1v1cosθ1 + m2v2cosθ2 and m1v1sinθ1 + m2v2sinθ2) but this is not correct and I really don't know what to do. Please help!


A certain nucleus at rest suddenly decays into three particles, two of which are charged and can be easily detected. The data gathered for these two particles is:

Particle 1 has mass m1 = 3.00 x 10^-20 kg moving at speed v1 = 5.25 x 10^5 m/s at θ1 = 51.9o.

Particle 2 has mass m2 = 2.11 x 10^-25 kg moving at speed v2 = 1.10 x 10^7 m/s at θ2 = 220o.

Find p3, the momentum of the third piece in i-j notation
 
on Phys.org
Can anyone help? Since it started from rest should the total momentum be 0?
 
sweetpete28 said:
Can anyone help? Since it started from rest should the total momentum be 0?

Yes. Write up the sum of all the x and y components in separate equations and equate them to zero.

ehild
 
Thank you!
 
sweetpete28 said:
Thank you!

You are welcome. Have you got the correct solution?


ehild
 

Similar threads

Replies
13
Views
2K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
3K
  • · Replies 13 ·
Replies
13
Views
2K
  • · Replies 22 ·
Replies
22
Views
4K
  • · Replies 6 ·
Replies
6
Views
2K
Replies
3
Views
2K
  • · Replies 6 ·
Replies
6
Views
2K
  • · Replies 18 ·
Replies
18
Views
7K
  • · Replies 17 ·
Replies
17
Views
15K
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
2K