Collisions

 

I learned that there are two types of collisions when it comes to momentum. One is elastic collision and the other is inelastic collision. An elastic collision is one that is bouncy; the initial kinetic energy is conserved, meaning that the momentum transferred in from one object is equal to the transferred momentum out the other object. An inelastic collision is one that is sticky; the initial kinetic energy is not conserved, meaning that the momentum transferred in from one object is not transferred out the other. In inelastic collisions, the objects usually come to a stop and in elastic collisions the object that the initial momentum acted upon receives whatever the initial momentum transferred to it. A good example of this would be car collisions. Sometimes in car crashes the cars are squished together (inelastic) and sometimes one car is propelled from the other cars momentum (elastic).