elastic deformation of a solid body & heat

**vikim** · Feb8-10, 12:33 PM

Let' say two steel or rubber disks hit each other
moving on friction-free surface.
During the interaction, both disks deform elastically.
My question is, does part of deforming energy
gets converted to heat ?
Why not ? Why this effect is never mentioned ? Is it negligible ?
I know from experience that if I bend steel wire, it heats in the place where it's bent.

Thanks
viki

**nasu** · Feb10-10, 08:10 AM

Originally Posted by vikim

Let' say two steel or rubber disks hit each other
moving on friction-free surface.
During the interaction, both disks deform elastically.
My question is, does part of deforming energy
gets converted to heat ?
Why not ? Why this effect is never mentioned ? Is it negligible ?
I know from experience that if I bend steel wire, it heats in the place where it's bent.

Thanks
viki

The effect may be negligible or not. When it is, we call the collision "elastic".
The effect is mentioned in books, this is not a secret. At least I read about it.
There is no really 100% elastic collision, only good approximations to one.