Question

Two balls have the same mass. One ball moving along the positive x–axis and the other ball moving along the positive y–axis undergo perfectly inelastic collision. What can you say about the motion of the balls after the collision?

A.
The balls stick and move together.
B.
The balls separate immediately.
C.
The first ball stops while the other ball starts moving.
D.
The two balls travel off in opposite directions, 180° apart.

Answer 1

A. The balls stick and move together.

Step-by-step explanation:

When a bodies undergo perfectly inelastic collision, the two bodies stick together after the collision and begins to move.

In this collision, kinetic energy is not conserved. For perfectly elastic collision, the two bodies conserve kinetic energy and begin to move apart.

Kinetic energy is not conserved because some of the energy gets converted into other forms of energy.