Lecture

Elastic Collisions

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In course

PHYS-101(en): General physics : mechanics (English)

Students will learn the principles of mechanics to enable a better understanding of physical phenomena, such as the kinematics and dyamics of point masses and solid bodies. Students will acquire the capacity to quantitatively analyze these effects with the ...

Description

This lecture covers the theory of elastic collisions, including momentum and kinetic energy in collisions, perfectly elastic and inelastic collisions, gravitational slingshot, and 2D collisions. Through examples and methods, the instructor explains the conservation of momentum and energy in different scenarios.

Instructors (3)

Suliana Manley

From 2016 Associate professor, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland 2009-2016 Tenure-track assistant professor, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland 2006-2009 Post-Doctoral fellow, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA 2004-2006 Post-Doctoral fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA 1999-2004 PhD (Physics) Awarded 06/2004, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA 1993-1997 Bachelors (Cum Laude) Physics & Mathematics, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

Marcelo Baquero Ruiz

Teaching & PhD PhD Students Michael Goddijn, Cyrille Sepulchre Past EPFL PhD Students as codirector Kadi Lyes Roland Courses Fusion and industrial plasma technologies PHYS-632 The course provides an overview of the technologies that are essential for fusion developments and for industrial plasmaapplications, highlighting the synergies between the two fields. The aim is to provide a combined theoretical andexperimental background to the various topics. General physics : mechanics (English

Justin Richard Ball

Dr. Justin Ball is a staff scientist studying theoretical plasma physics and nuclear fusion energy. His research primarily focuses on the effect of plasma shaping on turbulence in tokamaks. He is the principle investigator of the EUROfusion Theory, Simulation, Verification, and Validation project on negative triangularity. Additionally, he is an avid fusion science communicator via magazine articles, lectures, and podcasts. In 2019, he and Jason Parisi published a popular science book titled The Future of F

Official source

Related concepts (32)

Collision

In physics, a collision is any event in which two or more bodies exert forces on each other in a relatively short time. Although the most common use of the word collision refers to incidents in which two or more objects collide with great force, the scientific use of the term implies nothing about the magnitude of the force. In physics, collisions can be classified by the change in the total kinetic energy of the system before and after the collision: If most or all of the total kinetic energy is lost (dissipated as heat, sound, etc.

Elastic collision

In physics, an elastic collision is an encounter (collision) between two bodies in which the total kinetic energy of the two bodies remains the same. In an ideal, perfectly elastic collision, there is no net conversion of kinetic energy into other forms such as heat, noise, or potential energy. During the collision of small objects, kinetic energy is first converted to potential energy associated with a repulsive or attractive force between the particles (when the particles move against this force, i.e.

Inelastic collision

An inelastic collision, in contrast to an elastic collision, is a collision in which kinetic energy is not conserved due to the action of internal friction. In collisions of macroscopic bodies, some kinetic energy is turned into vibrational energy of the atoms, causing a heating effect, and the bodies are deformed. The molecules of a gas or liquid rarely experience perfectly elastic collisions because kinetic energy is exchanged between the molecules' translational motion and their internal degrees of freedom with each collision.

Four-momentum

In special relativity, four-momentum (also called momentum–energy or momenergy) is the generalization of the classical three-dimensional momentum to four-dimensional spacetime. Momentum is a vector in three dimensions; similarly four-momentum is a four-vector in spacetime. The contravariant four-momentum of a particle with relativistic energy E and three-momentum p = (px, py, pz) = γmv, where v is the particle's three-velocity and γ the Lorentz factor, is The quantity mv of above is ordinary non-relativistic momentum of the particle and m its rest mass.

Angular momentum

In physics, angular momentum (sometimes called moment of momentum or rotational momentum) is the rotational analog of linear momentum. It is an important physical quantity because it is a conserved quantity – the total angular momentum of a closed system remains constant. Angular momentum has both a direction and a magnitude, and both are conserved. Bicycles and motorcycles, flying discs, rifled bullets, and gyroscopes owe their useful properties to conservation of angular momentum.

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