What Gets Transferred During A Collision?

Have you ever seen two vehicles colliding with each other? Have you ever wondered what happens during a collision? What happens when a big vehicle collides with a smaller vehicle and why does the smaller vehicle sustain more damage than the bigger one? In all these situations collision is a common phenomenon. During the collision transfer of energy occurs between any two objects. A Collision can happen between any two masses having different shapes, weights, and velocities. In this article, we will look at the various reasons behind a collision and we are going to study them and explain how doing work shows a transfer of energy and know at what point in a collision does energy transfer occur.

Two Cars Collided with Each Other

What Gets Transferred During a Collision?

To know exactly what happens when objects collide, we first need to know what exactly collision is. In terms of physics, collisions do not necessarily mean an accident. In physics, a collision can happen between any mass at any point of time during its motion. A collision occurs when an object runs into another object. When two masses come in contact with each other during a collision various phenomena and transfers happen. In this part of the article, we will explore those transfer phenomena.

1. Energy gets transferred from one object to another when they collide with each other. 

2. When two objects collide, momentum or kinetic energy gets transmitted from one object to the other.
   
   

Collision of Two Cars

Definition of Momentum 

Momentum is defined as the moving mass of any body or mass that is measured when a body is in motion. It can also be defined as the product of the mass of an object and its velocity.

Definition of Kinetic Energy 

Kinetic energy is defined as the energy that is measured during the motion of a body which means it is the moving energy that a body possesses. In simpler words, any moving object possesses kinetic energy.

Examples of Collision 

1. Two balls colliding with each other 

2. Two strikers colliding with each other on a carrom board

3. A hammer striking an iron nail.

4. The collision between a fallen object and the floor.

5. It can also be as simple as an insect landing on a leaf so its legs and the surface of the leaf are to be in a collision.

6. A collision between microscopic bodies such as atoms colliding with each other.
   
   

Carrom Game Depicting Collision Phenomenon

At What Point in a Collision does Energy Transfer Occur?

During a collision, when the two objects touch each other at that point of contact the transfer of Kinetic Energy or momentum occurs. The point at which the transfer of energy occurs is known as the point of Contact. Now it comes to the question, that at the point of contact What happens when objects collide? 

Energy is transferred from one object to another when two objects collide. Energy is the capacity to carry out work viz, energy can make things happen. And the amount of energy that is being transferred during collision depends upon various factors such as the speed of the objects and the mass of the objects that are colliding. For example, the objects that run faster experience greater energy transfer and thus suffer a greater impact on them therefore we can conclude that energy being used while objects are touching together.

Explain How Doing Work Shows a Transfer of Energy

In scientific terms, energy is the ability of an object to do work. Therefore as we saw above we can conclude that even if there is a collision then work transfers between objects.

Summary 

To conclude all the learnings from the article we can say collision is a phenomenon that can happen at any instance between any object around us. During this phenomenon, various other integrated phenomenons are happening simultaneously which makes the phenomenon of collision a unique one to study in depth. Furthermore, we saw that energy is being used while objects are touching together or are under collision and also explained that where there is an energy transfer there are also work transfers between objects. With this, we would like to finish all the concepts related to collision. In case of any other doubts feel free to ask in the comments.