Elastic Collisions

poncherelli2

Senior member
Oct 3, 2002
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Does anyone a real life example of a perfectly elastic collision, this is for a stupid physics problem.
 

Mo0o

Lifer
Jul 31, 2001
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Are you sure it exists? That assumes perfect energey conservation without losing any of it to the outside system in the form of heat, sound, light
 

Forsythe

Platinum Member
May 2, 2004
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Rubber ball against the floor? Ofcourse, yo could go into atoms colliding completely central, but that's a bit more complicated.
But the ball is the best thing i can come up with.
 

Forsythe

Platinum Member
May 2, 2004
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Originally posted by: Mo0o
Are you sure it exists? That assumes perfect energey conservation without losing any of it to the outside system in the form of heat, sound, light

It doesn't exist, unless you go to the molecular level.
 

Mo0o

Lifer
Jul 31, 2001
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Originally posted by: Forsythe
Rubber ball against the floor? Ofcourse, yo could go into atoms colliding completely central, but that's a bit more complicated.
But the ball is the best thing i can come up with.

If it was perfectly elastic that would mean the ball can bounce forever w/o changing height
 

poncherelli2

Senior member
Oct 3, 2002
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also, i was told that examples do exist, i dunno if maybe they need to occur in space or a vaccuum, but i believe there are some examples.
 

Mo0o

Lifer
Jul 31, 2001
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Originally posted by: poncherelli2
also, i was told that examples do exist, i dunno if maybe they need to occur in space or a vaccuum, but i believe there are some examples.

magnetic repulsion at superfreezing temperatures comes close
 

Kibbo

Platinum Member
Jul 13, 2004
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One of those desktop marble thingamabobs would be pretty close, except for the friction and the sound. To the naked eye, it seems pretty perfect.