[Physics] Can Hooke’s law go along with Newton’s 3rd law & how is momentum conserved in case of spring

momentumnewtonian-mechanicsspring

Let there be a spring in its relaxed state– that is neither compressed nor extended. One end is fixed on the left and other end is free in the right. Now, I stretch the spring by pulling the free-end towards right. As soon as I do it, the spring exerts force ie. the restoring force on me towards left. But, I willn't move on the left but rather expand the spring towards right & it will exert more restoring force acc. to Hooke's law.
So, in this spring-me system , is the linear momentum conserved?? If so, how??? And also, is Hooke's law saying about Newton's 3rd law? That is, if I exert force on the spring, the spring exerts restoring force on me; then can I say by Newton's third law,at any instant $$ \text{restoring force} = – \text{my applied force}$$ ??? Please help me explaining these two: how the momentum is conserved and whether the relation above is true.

Best Answer

The above relation is correct. Regarding momentum, you need to consider the momentum of the entire system, including the wall, because the spring is not isolated. Just imagine the wall is very heavy but not infinitely so. And suppose both you and the wall are in a frictionless surface, otherwise there will be additional friction forces and momentum will not be conserved. In the frictionless case, when you pull the spring to the right, it will move to the right togetre with your hand, but the rest of you body will slightly move to the left to compensate (because of the reaction force), Also, the wall will move slightly to the left, minimally if it is too heavy, so the string will actually expand. If you take into account all these motions, momentum is conserved (because no external forces act on the whole system). Momentum will not be conserved if you are standing on a regular floor because friction (an external force) will act.