A North-going Zak has a mass of 50 kg and is traveling at 4 m/s. A South -going Zak has a mass of 40 kg and is traveling at 5 m/s. If they have a perfectly inelastic collision, what is their final velocity?

That would be kinetic energy

Initial velocity,  u = 4.9 m/sfinal velocity = v m/sinitial height,  h₁ =  245 m    final height, h₂ = 0a = -9.8  m/s²time taken = t secondss = ut + 0.5at²⇒  (h₂-h₁) = ut + 0.5at²⇒  0-245 = 4.9t + 0.5×(-9.8)×t²⇒ -245 = 4.9t - 4.9t²⇒ 4.9t² -4.9t -245 =0solving it, we get   t = 7.59sv  = u +  at = 4.9 -9.8×7.59 = 4.9 - 74.38 = -69.48 m/svelocity is  69.48 m/s downward

Inelastic is the answer your looking for.

Stars are born within the clouds of dust and scattered throughout most galaxies. a familiar example of such as a dust cloud is the orion nebula. turbulence deep within these clouds gives rise to knots with sufficient mass that the gas and dust can begin to collapse under its own gravitational attraction. as the cloud collapses, the material at the center begins to heat up. known as a protostar, it is this hot core at the heart of the collapsing cloud that will one day become a star. three-dimensional computer models of star formation predict that the spinning clouds of collapsing gas and dust may break up into two or three blobs; this would explain why the majority the stars in the milky way are paired or in groups of multiple stars.therefor, i would say the answer is: dust and gases contract.i hope this ! < 3