# Kinetic energy required for alpha particle to 'stick' to nucleus of a silver atom

I am relatively new to nuclear physics and have just picked it up as a hobby. I found this question online and require some help.

"An alpha particle is incident on a silver nucleus, what is the minimum kinetic energy required in order to become stuck in the silver nucleus? Take the diameter of the nucleus to be 10^-15 m"

I have directly copied this from the review sheet (hence the quotations). I'm unsure if the question mistakenly refers to the silver atom as just its nucleus, as both the nucleus and the alpha particle are positively charged. Could someone please provide working to calculate the kinetic energy, for both the silver atom and the nucleus?

Additionally, would I be correct in saying that if the question is considering simply the nucleus, it would never become 'stuck', rather an external force is being applied against the alpha particle in it's collision with the nucleus.

I'm only 13 so go easy on me if i've made a mistake :)

• You asked this earlier… Jun 16 at 22:34
• @JonCuster when I previously asked the question I was aware it was very unclear, and I hadn't made an attempt to solve it. Just wanted to clean it up so it is more helpful to whomever has a similar question. Jun 17 at 0:58

With those assumptions the question reduces to finding the energy necessary to reach a distance of $$10^{-15}\,\text{m}$$ against the electrostatic forces between the nucleus and the alpha particle.