A 15.0kg block is attached to a very light horizontal spring of force constant 550N/m and is resting on a smooth horizontal table. Suddenly it is struck by a 3.00kg stone traveling horizontally at 8.00m/s to the right, whereupon the stone rebounds at 2.00m/s horizontally to the left.
Find the maximum distance that the block will compress the spring after the collision.(Hint: Break this problem into two parts - the collision and the behavior after the collision - and apply the appropriate conservation law to each part.)