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It is found that if a neutron suffers an elastic collinear collision with deuterium at rest, fractional loss of its energy is p_d; while for its similar collision with carbon nucleus at rest, fractional loss of energy is p_c. The values of p_d and p_c are respectively

Asked in JEE Main 2018 · Energy transfer in elastic collisions

• (1) (0.89, 0.28)
• (2) (0.28, 0.89)
• (3) (0, 0)
• (4) (0, 1)

Step-by-step solution

Why the other options are wrong

• (2) Comes from swapping the two; a neutron loses more to the lighter nucleus, which is why heavy water moderates well.
• (3) Comes from thinking no energy passes to a heavier target; only an infinitely heavy one takes none.
• (4) No single slip gives (0, 1); full transfer needs equal masses, not a carbon nucleus.

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