How Do Elastic and Inelastic Mass Structures Affect Collision Behavior?

[omin]

I'm studying collisions in terms of basic mechanics (impulse, rebound, momentum, etc.)

I'm curious about the structure of types of mass that have elasticity and others than have less. I'm interested in why the masses behave they way they do because of their structure. Would somewhere here who knows even just a little about mass structure difference give a brief description of elastic type and inelastic type structures? (I mean elastic and inelastic mass in terms of how they behave toward each other in collisions.)

 

[Nenad]

well, there are some fundimental types of structure. Ionic crystal lattice, metallic, network, molecular etc... Ionic is inelastic because it is very organized and when pressure is plced on it, like charges get closer to each other, causing a repultion, and a breakdown od the solid. Metals on the other hand are very ellastic,because they have a sea of electrons in their basic structure, and this sea is very mobile, and tends to flow. Theres more to the story, look it up in a chem book.