Question

How will the momentum of the carts change before and after the collision? What differences can you expect between inelastic and elastic collisions?

Answer 1

Momentum is always conserved.
It can be transferred to somewhere else but it can never be lost.

An inelastic collision is like 2 sticky balls that are going to collide.
They stick to each other and don't bounce.

An elastic collision is like 2 ping pong balls colliding.
They'll bounce off each other like poiiiiininnggggg