During an elastic collision, which statement is correct?

In an elastic collision, the defining characteristic is that both momentum and kinetic energy are conserved throughout the interaction. When two objects collide elastically, they rebound off each other without any permanent deformation or generation of heat. As a result, the total kinetic energy before the collision is equal to the total kinetic energy after the collision.

This conservation of kinetic energy implies that, unlike in inelastic collisions where kinetic energy may be lost to other forms such as heat or sound, during an elastic collision, there is no loss of kinetic energy. Thus, the correct statement is that kinetic energy remains constant throughout the process. This principle applies to ideal scenarios in physics, where external forces and energy transformations are absent.