{"term":{"id":"01915","title":"elastic collision","longtitle":"IUPAC Gold Book - elastic collision","doi":"10.1351\/goldbook.E01915","code":"E01915","status":"current","also defines":"<em>also defines<\/em>: inelastic collision","definitions":[{"id":1,"text":"A particle (atom or molecule) can undergo a change in its state of excitation as a result of collisions with other particles. In an elastic collision an exchange only of kinetic energy takes place between the colliding species; in an inelastic collision there is an interchange between the kinetic energy and the internal energy of the particle.","links":[{"term":"internal energy","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/\/terms\/view\/I03103"},{"term":"kinetic energy","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/\/terms\/view\/K03402"}],"sources":["PAC, 1996, 68, 149. 'A glossary of terms used in chemical kinetics, including reaction dynamics (IUPAC Recommendations 1996)' on page 159 (https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1351\/pac199668010149)"]}],"altoutputs":{"html":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/E01915\/html","xml":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/E01915\/xml","plain":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/E01915\/plain"},"citation":"Citation: 'elastic collision' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351\/goldbook.E01915","license":"The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/) for individual terms.","collection":"If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .","disclaimer":"The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.","accessed":"2026-04-21T00:56:25+00:00"}}