Kinetic energy and collision involving a spring

[NeuroFuzzy]

I'm not quite happy with my justification of a problem. I'm not posting this in the homework section because it's not homework, and my trouble with doesn't revolve around finding the answer. The problem is this:

A 2-kg mass and an 8-kg mass collide elastically, compressing a spring bumper on one of them.
part 1) Which was of causing the collision to occur will result in the greater compression of the spring: Giving the 8-kg mass 16J of kinetic energy or giving the 2-kg mass 16J of kinetic energy? (the other mass remains stationary.
part 2) keeping the total kinetic energy to be 16J, how should this energy be divided to obtain the greatest compression of the spring?

I based my answer around kinetic energy. We can let v_1 and v_2 be the velocities of the masses relative to the center of mass, and v be the velocity of the center of mass. The total initial energy of the system (before the spring is compressed) as: E=\frac{m_1}{2}v_1^2+\frac{m_1}{2}v_1^2+\frac{M}{2}v^2. (where M is the total mass of the system) My argument is that we want to minimize the amount of energy locked up in the movement of the center of mass so that the energy can be used to give potential energy to the spring. So then:
\frac{M}{2}v^2=\frac{m_1+m_2}{2}\cdot \frac{(m_1 v_1+m_2 v_2)^2}{(m_1+m_2)^2}.
We also have J=\frac{1}{2}mv^2\rightarrow v=\sqrt{\frac{2 J}{m}}. The other velocity is zero, so:
\frac{(m_1 v_1+m_2 v_2)^2}{2(m_1+m_2)}=\frac{(m_1 v_1)^2}{2(m_1+m_2)}
Since the bottom is constant we can just consider the top term
=m_1^2 v_1^2=m_1^2\frac{2 J}{m_1}=m_1 2 J
To minimize this term, we obviously need to use the 2kg mass. The second part can be completed in the same way by setting the center-of-mass's velocity to be zero.

My question is... how can I justify this better? I'm really uncomfortable with energy based arguments

 

[Camille]

I do not quite see why did you use the idea with the mass center. Besides, I think you have doubled the energy in your term for E, but I might have misunderstood something.

Anyway, why don't you simple state, that the larger compression will be the result of a larger force in the spring. And since F = dp/dt, then the larger change of momentum will imply larger force.

Now, dp = p_2 - p_1 and if we attach the spring to the mass that was initialy at rest, we have p_1 = 0. So F \propto p_2. You will now need to consider two cases:

1. Moving mass m_2=8 kg
2. Moving mass m_2 = 2 kg

From each of them you will receive different velocities of this mass. Then you apply the conservation of momentum to find the velocity v_f of the whole system (moving together as one body) after the impact. Having this velocity you will be able to establish p_2 for each case and compare them.