collision: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As	impact

Photos

Golf ball being struck by the club; photograph taken with an exposure of 10−6 second

Two colored spheres of equal size approach and collide at the center, then move apart along different paths, with arrows indicating their initial and final velocities in the center-of-mass frame.

Diagram showing two particles of equal mass colliding: on the left, arrows indicate the initial and resulting motion paths labeled p0, p1, and p2; on the right, a triangle illustrates conservation of momentum with the same vectors.

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Topics

elastic collision collision frequency collision volume inelastic collision charge exchange recoil nucleus scattering electromagnetism gravity fundamental force strong force weak interaction

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