> Yes. I was saying, in a theoretical context, people often assume that 
> objects collide with no deformation, but presumably in the real world this 
> never actually happens...

I have never heard the assumption that the objects don't deform.  Assuming 
small elastic deformations during the collision is popular, or even small 
inelastic deformations, but never *no* deformation...

Even at school I remember doing the coefficient of restitution in physics 
classes, that allows you to calculate what happens during inelastic 
collisions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coefficient_of_restitution

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