inelasticity
(noun)
The insensitivity of changes in a quantity with respect to changes in another quantity.
Examples of inelasticity in the following topics:
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Inelastic Collisions in One Dimension
- Collisions may be classified as either inelastic or elastic collisions based on how energy is conserved in the collision.
- While inelastic collisions may not conserve total kinetic energy, they do conserve total momentum.
- A perfectly inelastic collision happens when the maximum amount of kinetic energy in a system is lost.
- In this perfectly inelastic collision, the first block bonds completely to the second block as shown.
- In this animation, one mass collides into another initially stationary mass in a perfectly inelastic collision.
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Inelastic Collisions in Multiple Dimensions
- While inelastic collisions may not conserve total kinetic energy, they do conserve total momentum.
- At this point we will expand our discussion of inelastic collisions in one dimension to inelastic collisions in multiple dimensions.
- While inelastic collisions may not conserve total kinetic energy, they do conserve total momentum .
- After this, we will calculate whether this collision was inelastic or not.
- As these values are not the same, we know this was an inelastic collision.
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Definition of Price Elasticity of Supply
- Supply is "perfectly inelastic."
- Inelastic goods are often described as necessities.
- Examples of inelastic goods would be water, gasoline, housing, and food.
- The elasticity of a good will be labelled as perfectly elastic, relatively elastic, unit elastic, relatively inelastic, or perfectly inelastic.
- Differentiate between the price elasticity of demand for elastic and inelastic goods
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Applications of Elasticities
- For inelastic demand, the overall supply and demand of a product is not substantially impacted by an increase in price.
- Products that are usually inelastic consist of necessities like food, water, housing, and gasoline.
- Whether or not a product is elastic or inelastic is directly related to consumer needs and preferences.
- If demand is perfectly inelastic, then the same amount of the product will be purchased regardless of the price.
- Give examples of inelastic and elastic supply in the real world
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Taxation Impact on Economic Output
- Because supply is inelastic, the firm will produce the same quantity no matter what the price.
- Because production is inelastic, the amount sold changes significantly.
- Consumption is inelastic, so the consumer will consume the same quantity no matter the price.
- If one party is comparatively more inelastic than the other, they will pay the majority of the tax.
- When supply is inelastic but demand is elastic, the majority of the tax is paid for by the consumer.
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Glancing Collisions
- Collisions can either be elastic, meaning they conserve both momentum and kinetic energy, or inelastic, meaning they conserve momentum but not kinetic energy.
- An inelastic collision is sometimes also called a plastic collision.
- A "perfectly-inelastic" collision (also called a "perfectly-plastic" collision) is a limiting case of inelastic collision in which the two bodies stick together after impact.
- The degree to which a collision is elastic or inelastic is quantified by the coefficient of restitution, a value that generally ranges between zero and one.
- A perfectly elastic collision has a coefficient of restitution of one; a perfectly-inelastic collision has a coefficient of restitution of zero.
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Tax Incidence and Elasticity
- If a producer is inelastic, he will produce the same quantity no matter what the price.
- Because the producer is inelastic, the price does not change much.
- In general, the tax burden will be greater for the group exhibiting the greater relative inelasticity.
- In a scenario with inelastic supply and elastic demand, the tax burden falls disproportionately on suppliers.
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Interpretations of Price Elasticity of Demand
- When PED is less than one, demand is inelastic.
- The effect of price changes on total revenue PED may be important for businesses attempting to distinguish how to maximize revenue For example, if a business finds out its PED is very inelastic, it may want to raise its prices because it knows that it can sell its products for a higher price without losing many sales.
- The second is perfectly inelastic demand.
- Perfectly inelastic demand is graphed as a vertical line and indicates a price elasticity of zero at every point of the curve.
- Perfectly inelastic demand is graphed as a vertical line.
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Conservation of Energy and Momentum
- In an inelastic collision the total kinetic energy after the collision is not equal to the total kinetic energy before the collision.
- At this point we will expand our discussion of inelastic collisions in one dimension to inelastic collisions in multiple dimensions.
- While inelastic collisions may not conserve total kinetic energy, they do conserve total momentum .
- After this, we will calculate whether this collision was inelastic or not.
- Since these values are not the same we know that it was an inelastic collision.
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Defining Price Elasticity of Demand
- In general, the demand for a good is said to be inelastic (or relatively inelastic) when the PED is less than one (in absolute value): that is, changes in price have a less than proportional effect on the quantity of the good demanded.
- A PED coefficient equal to zero indicates perfectly inelastic demand.
- When demand is perfectly inelastic, quantity demanded for a good does not change in response to a change in price.