A Whip is telescopic and designed to be fished with the line-to-hand, i.e. a 5m whip would have 5m of line and is usually only used when fishing for small(ish) fish, or as a 'speed' method in matches.
A take-apart is a Pole and is designed to be used with only 3-5m of line requiring you to ship the pole backwards to the 'break' point where you detatch the top 3,4 or 5 seciots in order to land the fish.
Only Poles should be elasticated for obvious reasons.
I did an article on FM some time back on Short Whip fishing that you might find helpful, sadly I cannot master the link thing, but you can search on the title.
Hope this helps.