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I have 2 rigid bodies (from different materials) in a collision.

As you know I should have the coefficient of restitution value to get the velocities after collision.

What is the information/values should I know about each body to calculate the restitution? And how to calculate it?

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1 Answer

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Except in special cases it would be very hard to calculate the Coefficient of Restitution from first principles. The Coefficient of Restitution is not a fundamental property like mass or internal energy. It's a way of describing energy losses in the colliding bodies, but the energy losses can arise from all sorts of causes. It's probably not even constant and will depend on the energy of the collision.

Did you have a specific system that you want to calculate the Coefficient of Restitution for?

JR

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i am making a physics Engine , i thought that there is 2 constants (one for each material) can be used in a LAW to calculate restitution of the 2 bodies/materials – MhdSyrwan Jan 30 '12 at 23:19

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