Problem

Cosmic rays from space that strike Earth contain some charged particles with energies bill...

Cosmic rays from space that strike Earth contain some charged particles with energies billions of times higher than any that can be produced in the biggest accelerator. One model that was proposed to account for these particles is shown schematically in the figure. Two very strong sources of magnetic fields move toward each other and repeatedly reflect the charged particles trapped between them. (These magnetic field sources can be approximated as infinitely heavy walls from which charged particles get reflected elastically.) The high-energy particles that strike the Earth would have been reflected a large number of times to attain the observed energies. An analogous case with only a few reflections demonstrates this effect. Suppose a particle has an initial velocity of -2.21 km/s (moving in the negative x-direction, to the left), the left wall moves with a velocity of 1.01 km/s to the right, and the right wall moves with a velocity of 2.51 km/s to the left. What is the velocity of the particle after six collisions with the left wall and five collisions with the right wall?

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