Sean Breheny wrote:
> Consider that the total impulse imparted by the floor upon the
> impacting object is mv for something which does not bounce and 2mv for
> something which does bounce. If we consider both events to take about
> the same total time, then the average force is higher for the bounce.

No, the average force is still the same.  The time that force is applied is
longer.

In any case your original assertion was that bouncing produced higher peak
force, not impulse, since that's what a G rating is unless it's qualified by
the length of time that G value is to be applied, which it wasn't in this
case.

> However, in many (most?) cases, the inelastic collision will
> take longer to slow the object than a pure spring would

It seems this assumption is pulled out of thin air.

> while the inelastic collision's force
> vs time is either decreasing over time or at least not ever increasing
> faster than the spring's,

Of course the inelastic force will increase over time as more material gets
envolved in compression and deformation.  It will eventually decrease as the
bulk of the mass comes to rest.


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