what is elastic collision

An elastic collision is a type of collision in which both momentum and kinetic energy are conserved. In an elastic collision, there is no net loss of kinetic energy in the system due to the collision. This means that the kinetic energy before and after the collision remains the same and is not converted to any other form of energy. Elastic collisions are idealized and are not commonly observed in the real world, but they can be approximated in certain situations, such as collisions between atoms in gases or between rigid billiard balls. Elastic collisions are useful in physics because the requirement that kinetic energy is conserved provides an additional constraint to equations of motion, allowing problems to be solved with fewer unknowns.