Sunday, January 6, 2019

newtonian mechanics - Why does inelastic collision obey the conservation of momentum?



Generally, when an inelastic collision occurs, the nonrelativistic energy of two observable objects is not conserved because some energy has been transformed into other forms such as heat and sound. I understand the fact that the energy of the entire isolated system is conserved if the total mass of the system is a constant. However, why should not some momentum of the two objects transform to the air molecules to generate airflow and sound?


Please note that I am asking the reason why momentum is conserved while energy is not conserved in terms of the collision of two observable objects.





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