An inelastic collision occurs when there is some deformation in the colliding objects and some energy gets stored in these deformation and hence kinetic energy is not conserved.
If we talk about atoms or the smallest unit of matter, if they collide they would not deform and hence the kinetic energy would not be lost in such deformations but my question is that the energy will still be lost in the form of sound and light and hence the kinetic energy will still not be conserved therefore could we conclude anything about the type of collision?
It seems to me as elastic as there are no deformations but I am worried about the kinetic energy conservation.
