A car bumps into a garbage can and pushes it down the driveway. Why is this considered an inelastic collision?
A. Momentum is not conserved between the trash can and the car.
B. Kinetic energy is conserved between the car and the trash can.
C. Kinetic energy is transferred to potential energy during the collision.
D. Kinetic energy is transferred to sound and heat energy and energy to possibly deform the garbage can.
D. Kinetic energy is transferred to sound and heat energy and energy to possibly deform the garbage can.
In an inelastic collision, the colliding bodies may not conserve total kinetic energy because some of it is transformed into other forms of energy, like sound, heat, and the energy required to deform the objects involved in the collision. However, the total momentum of the system is conserved, assuming no external forces are acting on it. In this case, although the car and trash can may move together after the collision, the kinetic energy of the system is not the same before and after the collision due to these energy transformations.