Coefficient of Restitution – Relation to Kinetic Energy

collisionenergynewtonian-mechanics

I know that Coefficient of Restitution(e) is defined as $$e = \frac{\mathbb{velocity\,of\,separation}}{\mathbb{velocity\,of\,approach}}$$
$$=\frac{v_2-v_1}{u_1-u_2}$$
Also for perfectly elastic collision $e = 1$ i.e. all kinetic energy is restored and in perfectly inelastic collision $e=0$ i.e. no kinetic energy is restored.
So is there any direct relation (equation,formula) between Coefficient of restitution and Kinetic energy.
Also I wrote a program in 10 min to create a graph of ($e$,% decrease in K.E.).

img

I think it should go to 100% at 0 but even at $e=10^{-10}$ the % decrease in K.E. doesn't even go 10%.(It is only precise up to 11 decimal places)
So my question is what is the relation between Coefficient of Restitution and Kinetic energy.
Edit: As stated by many answers that,$$\mathbb{\Delta K.E. = (1-e^{2})K.E._i}$$Thus I have created a newly modified graph according to above result.img So is there something wrong as I don't think that my calculation is wrong because I have followed the procedure.
After taking the parameters $m_1$,$m_2$,$u_1$,$u_2$;I found $v_1$ and $v_2$ using the equations $$m_1u_1 + m_2u_2 = m_1v_1 + m_2v_2$$ and $$e = \frac{v_2-v_1}{u_1-u_2}$$.
After this I found initial kinetic energy $$K.E._i = \frac{1}{2}m_1u_1^{2} + \frac{1}{2}m_2u_2^{2}$$ and $$K.E._f = \frac{1}{2}m_1v_1^{2} + \frac{1}{2}m_2v_2^{2}$$Thus, percent decrease $$ \mathbb{percent\,decrease} = \Biggl(\frac{K.E._i – K.E._f}{K.E._i}\Biggr)100$$So am i doing something wrong.

Best Answer

I think that you have the wrong idea about what the term perfectly inelastic means when it comes to the loss of kinetic energy.

Whereas the term perfectly elastic does mean that kinetic energy is conserved, perfectly inelastic does not necessarily mean that all the kinetic energy is lost.

For example if two objects, originally moving in the same direction, collide and stick together, the kinetic energy cannot become zero as linear momentum has to be conserved.
However, if the objects are moving in opposite direction and the magnitude of their linear momentums is the same then after sticking together the kinetic energy is zero.

If you write down the equation which defines the coefficient of restitution and that for the conservation of linear momentum you can derive an equation for the loss of kinetic energy which depends on the initial and final velocities of the colliding objects and the masses of those two objects.

To obtain your graph you must have assumed some initial conditions which meant that after the collision the linear momentum of the two objects which were stuck together was not zero, hence the loss kinetic energy was not zero.
A lump of chewing gum hitting a wall and sticking to it is an example of the coefficient of restitution being equal to zero but the chewing gum, wall (and Earth) do have some kinetic energy as a result of such a collision.