Your car rolls slowly in a parking lot and bangs into the metal base of a light pole. In terms of safety, is i

Question

Your car rolls slowly in a parking lot and bangs into the metal base of a light pole. In terms of safety, is it better for your collision with the light pole to be elastic, inelastic, or is the safety risk the same for either case?

Answer 1

I vote inelastic. You can end up with the car stopped at the light pole. In an elastic collision, the car will be moving again in the opposite direction at nearly the same speed, so it could hit something or someone else.