Question

1. imagine a piece of gum you are chewing falls out of your mouth and sticks to the ground. even though the gum sticks to the ground, why is this not an inelastic collision?

the gum and ground do not continue to move as one unit.
the gum does not have enough mass to create an inelastic collision.
the gum and the ground bounce together.
the gum does not hit the ground with enough force to be considered a collision.

Explanation:

Step1: Analyze inelastic collision concept

In an inelastic collision, the colliding objects stick together and move as one unit. For the gum - ground system, the ground is extremely massive.

Step2: Consider mass effect

The mass of the gum \(m_{gum}\) is negligible compared to the mass of the ground \(m_{ground}\) (\(m_{gum}\ll m_{ground}\)). When the gum sticks to the ground, because of the huge mass difference, the gum and ground do not continue to move as one unit. In a typical inelastic collision \(m_1v_1 + m_2v_2=(m_1 + m_2)V\). Here, if we assume \(v_2 = 0\) (ground is initially at rest), \(V=\frac{m_{gum}v_{gum}}{m_{gum}+m_{ground}}\approx0\) since \(m_{gum}\ll m_{ground}\), but the key is that they don't move as a combined unit in the sense of an in - elastic collision (where two objects of comparable or non - negligible masses stick and move together)

Answer:

The gum and ground do not continue to move as one unit.