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Let us consider a a perfectly inelastic 1D collision of
a moving body with a stationary body. When they come into
contact, either one of them or both deform as long as there is
relative velocity between them. Once they attain a common velocity
there can be no further deformation. Now if the nature of the bodies
is such that they regain their original form and do work on each
other to restore the all the lost KE we have a perfectly elastic
collision. In this situation the work done by bodies on each other
during deformation goes into EPE only and is not converted to any
other form and the energy stored as EPE in the deformation is
released back. If the deformation is set right only partially then we
have a partially elastic (or partially inelastic) collision. Again this
depends on the nature of colliding bodies. In this case only part of
the work done by the colliding bodies on each other during
deformation is converted into EPE and the rest is converted into
nonrestorable forms. If there is no tendency at all for the bodies to
regain their original form the collision is said to be perfectly
inelastic. In this case the work done by the bodies on each other
during the deformation goes completely into nonrecoverable forms.
Again this is determined by the nature of the bodies.
The conclusion is you cannot have arbitrary types of collisions
between arbitrary bodies.
regards,
Sarma.
On 26 Nov 2002, at 22:43, David Abineri wrote:
In an ideal inelastic collision (objects stick together) between two
equal masses with one stationary initially, one half of the KE is lost
(transferred to another form). Why is it that this amount of lost KE
does not depend on the materials of which the objects are made? It would
seem that one should get different results if they were made of steel vs
foam rubber for example.
Is this simply because this is an ideal situation or is there more to it
than this?
Thanks for any insights, David Abineri
--
David Abineri
dabineri@choice.net
This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.
This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.