Conservation of energy question?

Tijuana Tatsak: Your answer would be correct if energy was conserved in the collision of the two blocks..... but it isn't ( the collision is inelastic ).You have to do a good bit more work.Work out the speed of Block A before the collision ( use the KE you have correctly calculated )Then, from the conservation of momentum, work out the speed of (A + B ) after the collision.Then ! work out the KE of (A + B ) .... It will be less than the 5.03 J you started with.This is the energy that is converted into Spring Potential energy when the blocks hit spring 2....Show more