Question

A ball of clay falls freely to the hard floor. it does not bounce noticeably, and it very quickly comes to rest. what then has happened to the energy the ball had while it was falling?

Answer 1

The answer would be what had happened to the energy is it is in the ball and floor (and walls) as energy of invisible molecular motion for the reason that when the clay hits the ground the energy are moved to the floor and back to the ball but the energy will be weak and will be powerless to push the ball back up.