Calculate the average number of collisions needed for neutrons of average initial energy $2 \mathrm{MeV}$ to be thermalized (average energy $0.025 \mathrm{eV}$ ) when scattered by beryllium $(A=9)$, iron $(A=56)$ and lead $(A=207)$.
In each case, how many collisions would be needed to reduce the average energy to be about half the initial energy?