PHY9A Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Elastic Collision
Document Summary
Elastic collisions are collisions in which the total kinetic energy of the system is conserved. In an elastic collision, the objects involved bounce off each other without any loss of energy due to friction or deformation. These collisions are important in many areas of physics, including mechanics, astrophysics, and particle physics. The conservation of momentum is a fundamental principle in physics that states that the total momentum of a closed system remains constant. In an elastic collision between two objects, the momentum before the collision is equal to the momentum after the collision. This can be expressed mathematically as: m1v1i + m2v2i = m1v1f + m2v2f where m1 and m2 are the masses of the two objects, v1i and v2i are their initial velocities, and v1f and v2f are their final velocities. In an elastic collision, the total kinetic energy of the system is conserved.
