We implement a binary collision approximation to study pulse propagation in a chain of o-rings. In particular, we arrive at analytic results from which the pulse velocity is obtained by simple quadrature. The predicted pulse velocity is compared to the velocity obtained from the far more resource-intensive numerical integration of the equations of motion. We study chains without precompression, chains precompressed by a constant force at the chain ends ͑constant precompression͒, and chains

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... mpressed by gravity ͑variable precompression͒. The application of the binary collision approximation to precompressed chains provides an important generalization of a successful theory that had up to this point only been implemented to chains without precompression, that is, to chains in a sonic vacuum.