- published: 16 May 2015
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A collision is an isolated event in which two or more moving bodies (colliding bodies) exert forces on each other for a relatively short time.
Although the most common colloquial use of the word "collision" refers to accidents in which two or more objects collide, the scientific use of the word "collision" implies nothing about the magnitude of the forces.
Some examples of physical interactions that scientists would consider collisions:
Some colloquial uses of the word collision are:
Collisions involve forces (there is a change in velocity). The magnitude of the velocity difference at impact is called the closing speed. All collisions conserve momentum. What distinguishes different types of collisions is whether they also conserve kinetic energy.
Specifically, collisions can either be elastic, meaning they conserve both momentum and kinetic energy, or inelastic, meaning they conserve momentum but not kinetic energy. An inelastic collision is sometimes also called a plastic collision.
A “perfectly-inelastic” collision (also called a "perfectly-plastic" collision) is a limiting case of inelastic collision in which the two bodies stick together after impact.
Chaos may refer to: