On a frictionless horizontal surface below, a 1.5 kg mass traveling at 2.5 m/s collides with and sticks to a 3 kg mass that is initally at rest, as shown in the figure below. This system then runs into an ideal spring of force constant 50.0N/cm.
a) What will be the max compression of the spring?
b) How much mechanical energy is lost during this process? During which parts of the process ( the collision and compression of the spring) is this energy lost?