Using low-energy nozzle beams of Ne, Ar, Kr, and N-2 gases, we have me
asured the scattered elastic and inelastic intensities from a 10 K Cu(
111) surface, kept clean by pulsed laser heating. Our observations for
heavy atoms such as Ar and Kr are consistent with a picture where the
probability for elastic scattering at low surface temperature is inde
pendent of particle mass m, as predicted by Burke and Kohn, and depend
on m(1/2) at elevated temperatures. Rotational excitations reduce the
elastic scattering of N-2 by more than an order of magnitude and weak
en the phonon inelastic scattering.