Compressing a Spring: Forces & Potential Energy

[ralqs]

(This was, incidentally, inspired by a question I saw posted recently)

When a spring w/ mass is compressed, what will the forces that it produces on both ends be? Does it depend on how the spring is moving? What if one end is attached to a wall? And what will the spring's potential energy be? Thanks a lot, and the more derivations, the better! :)

 

[russ_watters]

If the mass is accelerating, the forces on the mass will be slightly greater than the force on the wall due to the acceleration of the mass of the spring, but the difference would usually be very small.