A ball is dropped, bouncing on the floor, would the collision between the ball and the floor be elastic or inelastic? what physical observation would lead to this conclusion?
The collision between the ball and the floor would be partially inelastic. This can be observed by noticing that the ball does not bounce back up to its original height after each collision, but rather loses some of its energy to heat and sound as it compresses and expands against the floor. However, the collision is not completely inelastic because some of the ball's energy is still conserved, allowing it to continue bouncing.
