How do I determine if a collision is Inelastic or Elastic?

Question

I already read the wikipedia information and I dont understand. Can I plug some data into a formula so I can find out of the collision is elastic or inelastic? Or is there a simpler way to find out?

Answer 1

An elastic collision is defined as one in which both conservation of momentum and conservation of kinetic energy are observed. This implies that there is no dissipative force acting during the collision and that all of the kinetic energy of the objects before the collision is still in the form of kinetic energy afterward.

Answer 2

Elastic collision is defined as one in which there is no loss of kinetic energy in the collision.

An inelastic collision is one in which part of the kinetic energy is changed to some other form of energy in the collision.

calculate the momentum before and after collision if they were equal it's elastic collision if not it's inelastic.

**calculate momentum using formula

P = mv

P is the linear momentum

m is mass

v is velocity