Question

Trying to understand what happens to KE in an inelastic collision. I know it is not conserved. Does that mean it is lost?

But if energy is neither created or destroyed....how can KE be just lost? I am confused.

Answer 1

It is changed to another form, usually heat, nearly always heat in the end. Can be converted sound, pressure waves, light energy, but in fact energy is conserved, but not in the moving bodies as we think in motion.