inelastic

Examples of inelastic in the following topics:

• Inelastic Collisions in One Dimension

  • Collisions may be classified as either inelastic or elastic collisions based on how energy is conserved in the collision.
  • While inelastic collisions may not conserve total kinetic energy, they do conserve total momentum.
  • A perfectly inelastic collision happens when the maximum amount of kinetic energy in a system is lost.
  • In this perfectly inelastic collision, the first block bonds completely to the second block as shown.
  • In this animation, one mass collides into another initially stationary mass in a perfectly inelastic collision.

• Inelastic Collisions in Multiple Dimensions

  • While inelastic collisions may not conserve total kinetic energy, they do conserve total momentum.
  • At this point we will expand our discussion of inelastic collisions in one dimension to inelastic collisions in multiple dimensions.
  • While inelastic collisions may not conserve total kinetic energy, they do conserve total momentum .
  • After this, we will calculate whether this collision was inelastic or not.
  • As these values are not the same, we know this was an inelastic collision.

• Glancing Collisions

  • Collisions can either be elastic, meaning they conserve both momentum and kinetic energy, or inelastic, meaning they conserve momentum but not kinetic energy.
  • An inelastic collision is sometimes also called a plastic collision.
  • A "perfectly-inelastic" collision (also called a "perfectly-plastic" collision) is a limiting case of inelastic collision in which the two bodies stick together after impact.
  • The degree to which a collision is elastic or inelastic is quantified by the coefficient of restitution, a value that generally ranges between zero and one.
  • A perfectly elastic collision has a coefficient of restitution of one; a perfectly-inelastic collision has a coefficient of restitution of zero.

• Conservation of Energy and Momentum

  • In an inelastic collision the total kinetic energy after the collision is not equal to the total kinetic energy before the collision.
  • At this point we will expand our discussion of inelastic collisions in one dimension to inelastic collisions in multiple dimensions.
  • While inelastic collisions may not conserve total kinetic energy, they do conserve total momentum .
  • After this, we will calculate whether this collision was inelastic or not.
  • Since these values are not the same we know that it was an inelastic collision.

• The Compton Effect

  • Compton scattering is an inelastic scattering of a photon by a free charged particle (usually an electron).
  • Compton scattering is an example of inelastic scattering because the wavelength of the scattered light is different from the incident radiation.

• Linear Momentum

  • Linear momentum is the product of the mass and velocity of an object, it is conserved in elastic and inelastic collisions.
  • Momentum is conserved in both inelastic and elastic collisions.
  • (Kinetic energy is not conserved in inelastic collisions but is conserved in elastic collisions. ) It important to note that if the collision takes place on a surface with friction, or if there is air resistance, we would need to account for the momentum of the bodies that would be transferred to the surface and/or air.

• Internal vs. External Forces

  • Without knowing anything about the internal forces (frictional forces during contact), we learned that the total momentum of the system is a conserved quantity (p1 and p2 are momentum vectors of the pucks. ) In fact, this relation holds true both in elastic or inelastic collisions.