Question

Zeta Anderson, having easily made the turn in the corridor, flips around drawing her low-velocity slug thrower (safe for shooting in spaceships) and shoots at the Zorn Dominator, which is still tentacular, and still chasing her. It takes longer to go around the corner, which allows her time to aim for the center of mass of the tentacles. The bullet embeds itself fully within the creature and stops, which does enough damage to kill it. Is the collision of the bullet with the monster elastic or inelastic? What happens to Zeta's speed when she fires the gun?

Answer 1

As the bullet embeds in the creature and stops and its kinetic energy is transferred to damage the creature and kill it. As kinetic energy is transferred and there is a loss in kinetic energy. This collision will be under Inelastic collision.

When Zeta Anderson fires the Slug Thrower/gun, bullet will go forward and as per law of conservation of momentum, Zeta's momentum will be just other opposite to bullet.So, Zeta's speed will be opposite to bullet's direction due to firing the gun