Collisions: Elastic and Inelastic

Collisions may be separated into several categories, some of which are easier to solve than others:

Completely inelastic collisions involve objects which stick together afterwards. Kinetic energy is not conserved, but the result is easy to calculate via conservation of momentum.
Partially inelastic collisions involve objects which separate after they collide, but which are deformed in some way by the interaction. Kinetic energy is not conserved. It's not easy to figure out what happens afterwards, because there are many possible solutions which satisfy conservation of momentum.
Elastic collisions involve objects which separate after they collide, and which are not changed at all by the interaction. Billiard balls, ping-pong balls, and other hard objects may collide elastically. Kinetic energy is conserved in elastic collisions. One must use both conservation of energy and conservation of momentum to figure out the motions of the objects afterwards. This usually involves solving 2 equations for 2 unknowns.

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The People of CIS

Hans Schmitthenner
Research Staff

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Research Interests: Chemical instrumentation and the synthesis and analysis of molecular imaging agents and their application in medical imaging.

Adapted from Prof. Michael Richmond.

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