Question

you throw 2 balls at a bunch of pins. is it better to throw a putty or rubber ball?

Answer 1

What is your objective?

Answer 2

to knock them over. its dealing with elastic/inelastic/totally inelastic collisions

Answer 3

I would use a rubber, it is likely to be deflected off the first pin, and knock over more pins.

Answer 4

i hate to tell you this, but you were wrong. the putty was better because it was one pin, and when looked at in terms of momentum, the rubber ball retains much of its momentum, just negative. the putty retans no momentum, transferring it all to the pin.