Question

During some sort of collision or crash, is it possible for all the energy to become thermal energy? Is it possible to have crashes where basically none of the energy becomes thermal energy?

Answer 1

1) No, it is not possibke for any sort of collision or crash where all the energy is converted purely into thermal energy because some small proportion of energy is always converted into sound, vibration etc. For exaple a speeding car crashes into a big giant wall , although both car and wall are stationary after collision and most of the energy is converted into heat , but a part of energy is also converted into loud thunder or boom sound produced when the car hits the wall.

2) yes, it is possible to have cases where crashes or collisions have none of the energy converted into thermal energy and such collisions are known as ELASTIC collisions ( in which both momentum and energy remains conserved).

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