Theoretical Fusor Momentum Quandary

[PHYSICS!!!:-)]

Hey,
I am have the initial velocities and masses of nuclei involved in fusion, and am trying to figure out the resulting velocities and kinetic energies. Since this is an inelastic reaction, i can't use Kinetic energy, as it is not conserved. I have the conservation of momentum to use, because it is conserved, but to use it I still need to find velocity. What could i use to find this? Also, if you could clarify how to find the kinetic energies for each resulting particle, it would be greatly appreciated!

reaction:
Deuterium+Deuterium--> Helium-3 + neutron
each deuteron has K.E. of 69.91 KeV, and a velocity of 2.59 x 10^6 m/s

 

[NateD]

To find the velocities of the resulting particles, you can use the conservation of momentum. The total momentum of the system before the reaction is equal to the total momentum after the reaction: m1*v1 + m2*v2 = m3*v3 + m4*v4 where m1 and m2 are the masses of the deuterons, v1 and v2 are their initial velocities, m3 is the mass of the Helium-3, and m4 is the mass of the neutron. You can rearrange this equation to solve for v3 and v4, the velocities of the Helium-3 and the neutron, respectively. Once you have the velocities of the resulting particles, you can find their kinetic energies using the equation K.E. = 0.5 * mass * velocity^2. Hope this helps!