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Yeah, it's just a sloppy way of saying things, IMO. There is a collision, and photons and particles are ejected. I suppose what they are saying is that it won't look like billiard balls, but the way they say that is confusing. Even with billiards, most energy is transferred into kinetic energy of the products of the interaction. If the cue ball doesn't shatter the 8-ball, then a bit goes into deformation of the balls, friction, and some sound and heat. If it does shatter the 8-ball, then some more goes into breaking bonds too. At any rate, I think it's just an unnecessary sentence that obscures rather than clarifies what is going on.