In real life, collisions are neither purely elastic nor inelastic, but instead, fall somewhere between. However, you can still classify many collisions as primarily elastic or inelastic. For example, hitting a baseball is a great example of an elastic collision, whereas catching the baseball is a great example of an inelastic collision.

1. Explain why hitting and catching a baseball are great examples of each type of collision.

2. Describe another real-world example of a perfectly elastic collision.

3. Describe another real-world example of a perfectly inelastic collision.

Question

Carissa

Physics

30 April, 14:21

In real life, collisions are neither purely elastic nor inelastic, but instead, fall somewhere between. However, you can still classify many collisions as primarily elastic or inelastic. For example, hitting a baseball is a great example of an elastic collision, whereas catching the baseball is a great example of an inelastic collision.

1. Explain why hitting and catching a baseball are great examples of each type of collision.

2. Describe another real-world example of a perfectly elastic collision.

3. Describe another real-world example of a perfectly inelastic collision.

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Answers (1)

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Natalia Newton · Answer 1

1. Hitting a baseball is a great example of an elastic collision because there is a complete conservation of kinetic energy; some of the energy of the bat is imparted onto the ball, and the system energy remains the same. Conversely, when a ball is caught in a glove, that is a perfectly inelastic collision: the kinetic energy of the system is completely absorbed into the glove.

2. Another example of a completely elastic collision would be someone jumping onto a trampoline: they bounce back up with the same amount of energy with which they began (albeit in the opposite direction).

3. An example of a perfectly inelastic collision would be someone jumping into a foam pit: the foam absorbs all of the kinetic energy of the jumper and none of it is conserved.