elastic collision

American  

noun

Mechanics.

1. a collision in which the total kinetic energy of the colliding bodies or particles is the same after the collision as it was before (opposed to inelastic collision).

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elastic collision Scientific  

/ ĭ-lăs′tĭk /

1. A collision between bodies in which the total kinetic energy of the bodies is conserved. In a perfectly elastic collision, no energy is dissipated as heat energy internal to the bodies, and none is spent on permanently deforming the bodies or radiated away in some other fashion. Elastic collisions, such as the collision of a rubber ball on a hard surface, result in the reflection or “bouncing” of bodies away from each other.

2. Comapre inelastic collision

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Etymology

Origin of elastic collision

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

Suppose the goalie and the ice puck have an elastic collision and the puck is reflected back in the direction from which it came.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

First, an elastic collision conserves internal kinetic energy.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

By definition, an elastic collision conserves internal kinetic energy, and so the sum of kinetic energies before the collision equals the sum after the collision.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

Figure 8.9 illustrates an elastic collision in which internal kinetic energy and momentum are conserved.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

Before he began to deal with light, he was intimately acquainted with the laws of elastic collision, which all of you have seen more or less perfectly illustrated on a billiard-table.

From Six Lectures on Light Delivered In The United States In 1872-1873 by Tyndall, John